


Only a Lifetime

by Moon Faery (tsukinofaerii)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-07
Updated: 2010-09-07
Packaged: 2017-10-11 13:46:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/113053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsukinofaerii/pseuds/Moon%20Faery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sora's been Riku's best friend since he moved into town three years ago. The week before graduation, Riku finds out Sora has a secret, and it's nothing like he would have ever expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only a Lifetime

"We've found two of the creatures, sir."

Jeans scuffed against cheap hotel upholstery as the Captain kicked his feet up on the small table and slid down in his chair. Drawn curtains let in slivers of blinding sunlight around the edges, but the electronic map propped against the fall wall was clear even with the extra light. A dot along the coast lit up, flashing in series of three red and a single blue. The captain took a drag off his cigarette, firing the cherry glowing in the dark. White smoke drifted in a hazy tendril. A low whistle followed the smoke upward. "Three thousand, huh?"

"Yessir. It's a class seven. The other in the area is only four hundred. They have a Ranger assigned to them."

"Have we got a picture of the Ranger?"

"Not yet, but we do have a description. Female, five foot seven, medium brown hair--"

"Get me a picture. If we're taking the bounty, we'll have to get her out of the way." The Captain's expressionless brown eyes studied the water-stained ceiling of the hotel room as orders rolled off his lips. "Acquire information on the target. Living arrangements, history, regular food sources, hunting grounds, territory. Mark humans who might be under its influence. I want John and Edward with me for the take."

"Very good sir. And sir?"

"What?"

"Intelligences suggests that the class seven might be about to breed."

The cherry-red glow of the cigarette snuffed out against the ash tray. "God help us. Double time those orders. There's no time to waste."

"Yessir."  


* * *

"Want to come to my house tonight?"

Riku watched Sora unwrap his sandwich and nibble on it, fingerless gloves getting jelly smeared on them no matter what he did to avoid it. The tree behind his back scraped his skin where his shirt didn't cover, but the warm air lulled him into not caring. "Won't your Mom eat me?"

Sora glanced up, half of a triple-decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich vanishing into his mouth. Startling blue eyes narrowed in concentration, grunting something that could have been a reply under other circumstances. He started choking, face turning purple as his fist pounded the grass. Riku slapped his friend's back until the sandwich went down the rest of the way.

Food dealt with, Sora collapsed face-first onto the manicured park lawn, face sunburn red and eyes watering. "What was that?" Air wheezed from his lungs in bursts of hoarse words. "You know better than to talk to me when I'm eating!" He twisted sideways to glare upward, chestnut spikes sticking up even more unmanageably than usual after his choking fit.

Riku kept rubbing his back, bare legs stretched out in front of him. He tried not to laugh. "That wasn't eating. That was a black hole in action." He grinned down at the collapsed boy, teeth flashing white against his early summer tan. "Besides, you started it. Answer the question, dork."

Grass crushed as Sora rolled sideways, squirming until his head rested on Riku's thigh. The black zip-up top he wore rode up above the waist of his shorts, exposing a slice of lower stomach and hip bones. "Of course she won't."

It took all Riku's will power to keep the blush off his face. _Stop it,_ he scolded himself. _This is **really** not the time._ "Why? Your mom's psycho. You can come to my place."

"I've got to show you something. Mom won't be a problem." Afternoon sunlight slanted through the tree at just the right angle to turn Sora's eyes to liquid sapphire.

"What do you need to show me?" Something that might have been anticipation clenched low and tight in Riku's gut. Three years of friendship and Sora always made him question everything about himself, most recently his sexuality. _If he's interested... maybe..._

"You'll see. You always said I'm crazy." His cheek nestled into Riku's leg, eyes rolling upwards innocently as he popped another bite of sandwich in his mouth. Crumbs and smears of strawberry jelly decorated the corners of his lips as he chewed.

"You are," Riku shot back automatically, mind turning the conversation over. _This has got to be a joke of some kind. Maybe he and Selphie are going to attack me or something._ He glanced at Sora, who seemed perfectly content just to use his leg as a pillow for all eternity. "Have you hit your head lately? Or eaten anything suspicious?"

This time the boy shook his head rather than risk choking, though eating on his back was unsafe enough. "Not worse than usual."

Knowing Sora's eating habits, that didn't reassure Riku at all. "What's this about Sora?"  
The last of the sandwich vanished. Cargo shorts twisted as Sora curled his body upwards, until his knee poked in Riku's back. "I haven't been really honest with you lately," he admitted. "Well, ever. And I wanted to explain."

"What do you mean?"

"Ever hear the saying 'you have to see to believe'?"

"Yeah." Riku blinked and opened his eyes. Sora stood over him with no signs of having moved from his laying position. His heart lurched. _When did he get so fast?_

A warm breeze ruffled Sora's spikes as he stretched. His shirt rode up even more. Riku hastily looked up to his eyes. "I want you to believe, but if I tell you now you won't. Just come to my house for dinner tonight."

The white-haired boy didn't bother to get up. "Tonight? It's a school night."

"Last week of class and we might as well have already graduated," Sora scoffed. "No one will care if we're tired tomorrow."

With a mental shrug, Riku decided to go along with it. The worst that could happen was Sora wouldn't be knocked out of his delusions. "Fine, fine." He bent to stand, back protesting where it had been lodged against the tree trunk. "Just let me-- Sora?"

Sora had vanished, leaving just an empty park and an emptier sandwich wrapper behind.  


* * *

"Don't make me go yet." Leia curled up on the bed, arms wrapped tight around her pale knees, face a smooth oval hidden under a curtain of dark hair. Naked white skin gleamed in the dim lamp-lit darkness of the room, her underwear a lighter shade of pale against it. Heavy curtains over the windows blocked every shred of sunlight. Knickknacks covered every available surface, making long shadows on the pearl gray carpet. "Please, just a few more hours?"

"I don't think he'll relax if you're here." Sora trailed his fingers along the clothes in her closet, keeping one eye on the woman in case she moved or started crying. His stomach rumbled. _I'll eat after he's gone home._ He didn't have time to find food. "You have to go out now and then. This won't be any different from grocery shopping."

"It hurts!"

He settled on an old-styled blue dress, pulling it out to inspect. Long-sleeved and high-collared, it would be stifling, but experience reminded him that she'd never accept something more revealing in public. He'd never figured out why she rated him different than 'public' in her head, but it made her easier to dress. "You'll be fine. It's been ages since you even got a burn. Here, wear this."

"Why now?" She reminded him of a child as she reached for the dress, slipping it on without leaving the safety of her bed. The contrast of uncertain innocence and round-limbed adult womanhood boggled the mind. "And if he never arrives? May I stay until he does?" The dress slid into place over her shoulders, flaring around her legs. The shoes were next, thin stockings and slip on heels.

"We're running out of time." Sora helped her adjust the dress, tying the strings in back so it hugged her figure. Her hat and purse were next, one straw and the other a sky blue that only pretended at matching. "I don't want to lose him."

"Are you sure about him?" Leia covered her dark hair with the hat, tucking her curls under it carefully. She perched on the very edge of the bed, a picture of ladylike reserve in her long blue dress, cloak held to her breast like a beloved doll. "What if he's one of them?"

Sora riffled through the purse, making sure she had everything she needed. "I'm sure. We've been here for three years. He'd have tried something by now if he was."

Something looked wrong with the bag. It took him a moment to realize what it lacked. _Girls always have make-up..._ He tossed a small tube of lip-gloss in to rattle around and a tissue for the look of it. Even if she didn't wear it, she should have it for the look of things. Once that had been fixed, it looked like any other purse he'd ever seen. The last thing he slipped in was her cell phone, a technological safety precaution she'd never been happy with, but he insisted. Satisfied, he hooked it over her shoulder and took the cloak from her hands, gently unhooking her fingers when she tried to cling to it. "Go. See a movie, shop, get dinner. Have fun; you don't get out enough. People wonder when you never go out at all."

"But..." She stared longingly at the garment, older features child-like behind her curtain of hair. "It hurts."

"You're old enough that it won't hurt anymore." He smiled at her. "It's just sunlight, Leia. You have to get used to it sometime. People don't wear these anymore." His fingers combed through her curls, soothing them back in long strokes. _She's so young..._ "There's only a couple hours left. I believe in you."

Her smile trembled, false bravery pasted over fear. "I... know. Thank you for that." The older woman stood, clutching her purse like the lifeline they both knew it as. "Sora..." She took a deep breath, a slim figure lost in the sea of modern clutter, not quite fitting in with her surroundings but helpless to change them. "I'm worried for you."  
"I know what I'm doing."

"But... Boys can be fickle. Especially _that_ kind of boy." Her manicured fingers twisted in her old-fashioned skirt, hazel eyes soft in the twilight. Her skin had the peculiar ivory radiance of a person who knows all the tricks to avoid sun damage, and used them. "What will you do if--"

"I'll take care of it." A hoard of slimy thing twisted through his stomach, turning excitement into a knee-shaking case of nerves. "I'll handle it."

She hugged him tight, skirt whispering in the breeze from the air conditioner. "Take care." Delicate, powdery perfume washed over him as the woman held tight. "You've been good to me. He can hurt you." Lips pressed against his forehead.

Somehow, Sora managed to smile at her. "The ones we love always can."  


* * *

Flamingos.

Riku didn't set foot in Sora's house often. His mother provided more than enough barrier to convince them to keep everything on Riku's turf. He passed by it often though, and the flamingos always shocked him, even though he knew they were there. The things were classic bubblegum pink, in board shorts, Hawaiian shirts and sunglasses. They cast huge shadows across the lawn as the sun set off to the west, B-rated horror movie monsters waiting for nightfall. Added to the colonies of garden gnomes and forest of six-inch picket fences, the flamingos were just one straw too many. _Who has these things in their yard anymore?_

As he walked down the drive, details came into horrible focus. Even in the syrupy golden light that flooded the yard, it was a nightmare. Pink trim matched the flamingos perfectly. Flowers, hearts and country wood-cuts scattered themselves across the porch and lawn on tiny tables barely big enough for a tea tray. They stacked against each other, sitting on every available and some that looked ready to fall over from the weight.

A pair of particularly evil-looking garden gnomes glared at him from the rosebushes. He shivered.

"Are you going to stand there all night?"

"WAH!" Stumbling backwards off the porch, Riku looked up. "Don't do that, you freak!"

Messy brown peeked out of a tiny attic window. Sora beamed downward. "Get inside! I made dinner!" He vanished, closing the window behind him.

Breath held, Riku crept up the steps and let himself in, looking everywhere for sign of Sora's mom. After meeting the woman for the second time, he'd learned his lesson and didn't want to repeat it. Since Sora had leaped out of the closet as gay, every boy he brough home she suspected of wanting in his pants. In some ways, her suspicions held truth. Sora was adorable, fun to hang around, and more than a little sexy in his own clueless way. No one had actually tried to snatch his innocence, as far as Riku knew, but she stayed on guard anyway. Riku had been waiting for Sora to rebel since day one, but so far he had just shrugged it off.

The inside of the house wasn't any better decorated than the outside. Every attempt had been made to make the living room cozy and homey, but it looked like a garage sale in progress. Afghans and gem-toned pillows littered the furniture in a clashing scream of tastelessness. The tables were just as cluttered with knickknacks, with the addition of pictures crammed onto every available piece of wall space. Family portraits, pictures of puppies, people, sketches, and one framed finger painting drew the eye everywhere and nowhere.

"Horrible, isn't it?" Sora's voice carried out of the kitchen. A few spikes of hair and a shoulder were barely visible from the living room as he did something mysterious to food. "The decorator thought we were psycho."

"Where's your mom?" Riku edged his way around an overstuffed armchair covered in a canary and violet blanket. It looked ready to explode any moment.

"Out." Sora swiped a sliver of carrot off his cheek. "I kind of gave her the night off."

Later, he would blame shock for making him miss a perfectly obvious end table and bark his shin. "OW! You _gave_..." Clutching the scraped and throbbing limb, Riku hopped his way into the kitchen enough to lean on the doorframe. Glass and shiny chrome winked from the counters, so bright the kitchen hardly looked used at all. There was an antiseptic quality that said "showroom floor", not "living space". "You don't give parents the night off. It doesn't work that way."

"She's one of the things we need to talk about."

Confusion took over while Riku's brain hovered in recess. "Are you breaking up with me?" Three seconds later he wished he'd bitten his tongue off. _What kind of question is that? What if he's interested in me? What if **I'm** interested in him? Argh... I can die now. Really._

A laugh bounced out of the kitchen. "Just get in here. Dinner's ready." He ladled some kind of pasta onto two plates, then piled chicken and a white sauce on top. In spite of having atrophied taste buds, Sora could cook well. He'd done so many times over at Riku's apartment when his parents were on a business trip and neither felt like fast food. The older boy had never bothered to find out where he learned, but now he wondered.

Leg crooked so as not to jar the still-tender shin, Riku hobbled to the two-person table and sat down. A bread basket in the center had been piled with steaming slices of thick brown bread, with an elegant butter dish nearby. Matching salad dressing containers sat at either side. Everything was in perfect order. Even the napkins were folded properly.

"I didn't know you could cook. The way you eat, I should have guessed. No mother could keep up with you alone." Riku shocked himself with the quip, not having meant to say anything at all.

"Yuck it up." A filled plate and a bowl of salad slid in front of him. Sora removed the apron and slid into the other place setting on Riku's left, helping himself to the bread and butter. "You eat just as much as I do."

"I don't try to kill myself doing it though. You eat sardines with pop rocks!"

Sora grinned. "Yum."

_Humor him. Humor him. Humor him. That's just gross._ Trying not to blanch, Riku speared a piece of chicken. "You're a sick, sick man. That's just wrong."

"I eat real food too!" He held up a slice of buttered bread loaded with pasta and chicken as an example.

"Only when you don't want to gross the rest of us out." Riku used his fork to emphasize his points. "What else do you eat when we're not looking? Animal entrails? Dirt? Paper?"

"What do you think hot dogs are?"

"... Gross."

The rest of the meal passed in silence of people enjoying good food. Riku tried to focus on eating and the occasional lock of white hair that worked its way in his mouth, but every unexpected noise made him jump. By the time he demolished his plate, he was so tense even his toes were curled in his shoes.

"Hey." The hand that touched his knee almost sent Riku out of his skin. A worried frown tilted Sora's lips downward. "We don't have to do this if you don't want. We could play video games or something, and pretend I never brought it up."

Something in the way he offered and the hesitant pressure on his knee bolstered Riku's courage. Whatever was going on, it was important to Sora. _And that makes it important to me._ Nothing could make him let Sora down. "Nah. Whatever it is, I can take it." Comfortable routine let his voice take a teasing tone. "You're making it sound like we're having sex or something."

The sudden fire that rose in Sora's eyes dried his tongue to the roof of his mouth. It vanished when he grinned and leaned back into his own seat, hand leaving Riku's knee. "You wish. When was the last time you were laid, straight boy?"

"Shut up." He smiled, then looked away quickly. Sora's eyes were still smoldering blue, though it would take his best friend to spot it. "What are you going to do?"

"Show you pictures." The chair legs scraped the floor as Sora pushed away from the table. Even the slow burn dropped from his eyes. "Let's get it over with early. Then we'll play God Wars or something."

Reluctantly, Riku pushed up out of his chair. "What about dishes?"

"Leia will take care of it. She likes cleaning." Sora's hands were wrapped around Riku's, cool and strong as he tugged him over to the living room staircase.

"Who?" Riku fought to keep his feet from dragging. Dinner sat heavy in his throat as Sora walked backwards to guide him. The sun had set while they were eating, but only the kitchen light was lit. More than once, only Sora's quick thinking saved him from another bumped shin.

"My Mom." High windows shined light from the street lamps in thin yellow beams. Night had fallen, but the stars were barely visible through the glare of city lights. It hid his friend's face in stark shadow, leaving his eyes a shining blue glow in the darkness.  


* * *

Sora frowned as Riku shivered. It ran up his hand, tightened his fingers. He hesitated, two steps off the landing. "Riku?" His voice came close to cracking. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." The pale-haired boy smiled. The same light that hid Sora's face showed his in exquisite detail, every eyelash creating its own shadow. "Do your eyes do that a lot?"

"Do what?"

"I guess not. Must be a trick of the light."

Shadows shifted as Sora's head twisted around. His spikes poked up out of the darkness like black icebergs, looking less like hair than a jester's cap. "What were they doing?"

"Nothing." Riku's hand was warm on his shoulder as he turned Sora around and shoved him up the last few steps. "Get going. You're not getting any younger."

"Not getting any older either," Sora joked back, stumbling forward. The darkness didn't bother him, but he kept his grip on Riku's hand. _I should have brought them to the park..._

Floorboards creaked comfortingly under their feet as he led Riku to the wooden attic-ladder at the end of the landing. It was still down from where he'd used it earlier to watch the sidewalk. The smaller boy wasted no time scrambling up and flipping the light switch. Yellow light from a free-hanging fixture struck flared, blurring the world for a second before his eyes adjusted.

Riku wasn't so lucky. "AH!"

"Sorry." Sora's thin body blocked the light from the entrance, peering down worriedly at his friend. Riku rubbed his eyes as Sora's shadow fell on him. "Should have warned you."

"It's okay." Riku blinked, tears in his eyes as his vision fought to adjust. "Doesn't it hurt at all?"

"Not really. I'm... different." Sneakers scraped wood as Sora peered down, lean arm holding onto the attic opening. Seeing Riku's pupils stop adjusting, he turned and scurried upwards, dodging sheet-covered furniture to his desk.

"Different?"

Nimble fingers pulled books from nearby shelves as Sora considered the question. Some of them were so old their covered threatened to crumble just at a touch. He'd put on surgeon's gloves to handle them. "There's... a lot of things I didn't tell you. I'm not really... What you think I am." He didn't look at Riku while he spoke, fingers caressing the spine of the book like a lover. The books were old friends, the oldest he had. He could still see long promenades in the back of his mind, taste salt on the air from the nearby Mediterranean. "A 'parasite' is probably the closest I can explain. When we were defined, a lot of modern concepts didn't exist. It's hard to translate some of the ideas they used."

Riku's voice slapped him out of his memories. "When-- you were defined?"

Sora picked up the book, cradling it. "It was a fad in Athens for awhile. I think Aristotle was the last to try." A laugh escaped. "It didn't fit with his ideas of constant change, since... well, we don't." The dusty attic refocused around him, Riku at his shoulder. "So he junked it and decided we were a form of demigod. Really made him mad. He almost started a riot with his ranting."

"You sound like you knew him," Riku chuckled.

"I did."

Silence swept back over them. Riku fidgeted, staring at the desk like it held all the secrets of the world.

An amused smile twisted Sora's lips. He slipped the book he held into Riku's hands. It weighed at least twenty pounds and was obviously old, all well-oiled leather and thick parchment pages. The covered had been decorated with some kind of carving around the edges, worn smooth with handling. Once, it had been a pattern of keys, but now they were just shadows on leather. "Flip through that."

Riku held it carefully, awe in every touch. Sora grinned, knowing the temptation he'd just placed in his friend's hands. The boy had always had a fascination for old things, and he was bound to be aware that what he held was a museum piece worth a small fortune.

With a reverence reserved for antiques and religion, Riku opened it to the first page.

It was a sketch, more of a roughing in of lines and shade than a portrait. The subject was a man with an imposing face and some kind of loose-fitting clothing. Behind him, a town had been shaded in with quick strokes of pen and ink. The whole thing was shades of gray, except for his eyes. Those were a shade of indigo so vibrant they leapt off the page, gave depth to simple work. Sora knew exactly where he got his eye color. Riku glanced back and forth between the drawing and his friend, comparing.

"My father." His throat tightened at the sketch of a man long since gone to dust. The pain never really went away.

"Where's that behind him?"

"Mycenea. A long time ago." Riku pressed their shoulders together in a welcome show of support. Heart heavy, Sora leaned on him, smiling.

There were pages of Greek script, letters and poetry and anything that had come to mind when he'd started keeping the books. Most people wouldn't have recognized it for what it was, but Riku's eyes widened, glancing at him in disbelief. Sora just smiled and turned the page.

More sketches followed. People, animals, plants, buildings. There were even some of himself in every era of dress he'd remembered, done by friends and hired artists. Togas, doublets, robes, Egyptian finery with heavy eye make-up and more jewelry than he'd could remember ever wearing for real. The entire book was filled with it. Riku sat down on the floor half-way through it, so engrossed he barely noticed when Sora sat beside him, their knees brushing.

After the first, Sora handed him a more modern volume, full of old pamphlets and newspaper clippings. Some of them were even from the Revolutionary War, bits of history Sora hadn't be able to let pass completely. The earliest of photos were there too, grainy and faded but lovingly cared for. He'd even included obituaries of friends, human and not, lives ended by ignorance and age that he never wanted to forget. They bent over it together, cinnamon brown spikes mixing with silver.

Book after book, full of crumbling history and centuries of life. Time flew as Riku flipped the pages, falling away like a shroud as he followed his friend through history. Sora stayed by his side, relaxing when the disbelief faded from Riku's eyes. Neither of them spoke much, but they didn't need to.

The clock turned to ten thirty when Riku finally finished the last book and set it in Sora's hands, meeting his eyes with a shaky smile. Hope and fear battled in Sora's stomach, twisting it around his spine as he started to put away his memories.

_He believes._

Sora had done all he could. But what would Riku do with it?  


* * *

By the time the last pages closed, Riku's hands were shaking. Shock and disbelief tied his stomach in knots, quaked fear down to his very bones.

Just as quiet as he'd been the evening through, Sora gathered his memories and put them away. The oldest he slipped back into a protective sleeve Riku was sure he hadn't seen before. Once everything had been shelved, he lowered himself back beside Riku on the floor.

"Are you okay?" Even the small whisper was too loud in the stillness.

Riku couldn't look at him. The grain of wood under his unsteady fingertips was softly ridged and worn dark by years of use. "What are you?"

"A parasite." Sora's breath was soft against his ear. "We're called vampires now."  
"How can you stand sunlight?"

Cloth whispered against wood, and a leg pressed against his. It was a comfort. "Everyone can take an hour or so before they start to crisp," came the quiet answer. "The older we get, the more we can take. I'm pretty old. Over three thousand." His voice, while soft, was smug. It took Riku a moment to realize he'd indirectly admitted belief.

"You drink blood?"

"Pretty much."

"Were you ever human?" It shone through the window, battling with the lamplight to cast shadows. Riku's fingertips dragged over the floorboards, following swirls and dips. The moon had risen outside, waning but still close to full. They stopped when Sora's hand covered his, icy cold like he'd been out in bad weather.

"I was." Their fingers twisted together. Suddenly, Riku couldn't look up for entirely new reasons. "Things were different. Harder." He shook his head, strands brushing up against the underside of Riku's jaw.

_When did he get so close?_ "So what happened?"

"It just happened to come up. Back then, sixteen was an adult, and when immortality's offered..." His chuckle was dark. "Who would say no?"

Riku's arm moved to drape over Sora's shoulders, then paused. They were so close, but that pushed boundaries already unstable. He patted his shoulder instead, and felt horrible for it. "Thank you. For telling me."

"What are you doing after graduation?" A blush rushed up Sora's cheeks. The familiar expression eased the last of the tension from Riku. "I mean... You never said if you're going to a university or-- or anything else..." His thumb rubbed Riku's knuckles nervously.

"I don't know." Riku picked at his black jeans, thinking. "I thought maybe I'd go to a university. Maybe study archeology. Mom and Dad kept pushing, so I didn't really think about it much." Where they touched, he could feel Sora fidgeting. "Why?"

Instead of answering, Sora changed the subject. "You know what the problem with being sixteen forever is?" Without waiting for an answer, he ploughed on. "I can't stay anywhere long. I get three years, sometimes four before people notice I don't grow older. Adults can manage twenty years sometimes."

Pain tightened Riku's chest, rocking him from knees to throat. Sora had moved there three years ago... "Sounds lonely."

"It is. And Leia's not much company."

"Your Mom, right?"

"Not really." Sora sighed. "She's... Kind of weird. I take care of her, but she doesn't really like it here. A friend over in Europe said they'd take her in this August."

"Then what are you doing after graduation?" As soon as the question popped out, he regretted it. He'd practically admitted that he couldn't stay in town longer. Already he missed him, anticipating the loss of his best friend. _Suck it up. You're lucky you got three years._

The smaller boy was silent for so long, Riku wondered if he should check his pulse. That raised the question of whether vampires even had pulses, which turned into things they wouldn't be able to do without blood pressure. Fortunately, Sora spoke before he began to blush.

"I thought I'd travel. Three thousand years of saving and investing adds up, so I've got the money for it. But..." When he glanced up, his face was so full of hope Riku's heart twisted. "Come with me!"

"Huh?"

"I know a professor who'd be glad to take you on." Sora was babbling, rising to his knees in earnest excitement. His top started to come unzipped, flashing a strip of creamy muscles. Riku struggled to catch up to what he was saying. "Two college students and a professor won't attract too much attention, and you'd get a degree working with historical sites, not just studying them! Prof Oran might even think it's neat to teach a human for once. Please?"

Riku stared into Sora's huge blue eyes. _Why you little schemer!_ There was no way a plan that detailed had come from nowhere. "Is that why you told me?" He squeezed his fingers to keep him from looking away. "I'm not mad. I just want to know."

Against him, Sora's thin frame vibrated with nervous energy. Even the spikes on his head looked stiffer than usual. "You're..." The pause rated 'suspicious'. "You're my best friend. The best I've ever had. I don't want to lose you so soon."

For a long moment, he let himself think about it. He'd known that to go to a university, he'd have to leave everything behind. Not that there was much, but a few people he knew he'd miss. It just hadn't sunk in until a few days past. With his parents pushing for law or med or even business school, he'd assumed he'd take a year off just to make them mad.

_Sora can't wait a year._

Inspecting his friend with a refreshed eye, he couldn't ignore that Sora hadn't changed at all. He looked young to be a senior in high school, and every week there was a chance someone would look at an old photo and make a logical leap. He couldn't stay and be safe.

But Sora was his best friend. All Riku's plans, or plans to plan, involved him. He just couldn't imagine moving on with his life without that blue-eyed ball of trouble beside him. There'd be a Sora-shaped hole in his future.

He tried not to think about that too much. It reeked of girlie.

"I-- I need to think about it."

A huge smile spread over Sora's face, goofy and wide enough to hurt. It almost made Riku feel ashamed for doubting him.

"That's fine," the vampire beamed, eyes bright even in the lamplight. His smile took up his whole face, so honest it was easy for Riku to forget everything he'd just learned. "Take all the time you need."  


* * *

His bedroom wasn't as big as some he'd had over the millennia, but it was plenty big for two boys, a bed and a game center worth dying for. They fooled around with their games for hours after Sora's confession. The awkwardness vanished more with every little moment, but didn't fade completely. Sora did his best to act like nothing had changed, but it had. Riku looked at him with new eyes, re-evaluating everything he did and said.

_And it's not even over yet..._ Sora stared at the screen, willing the little characters to move faster. They'd sprawled on his bed side-by-side, the human's warmth seeping into him. "Close..."

Mid-jump, the screen froze.

"Did you say something?" Riku tipped his head sideways, silver hair turned purple in the light of the paused screen. It framed the long stretch of his neck, cascaded over an elbow to drape on the bed. He was gorgeous, muscled youth and energy that never seemed to stop entirely, like the blood in his veins ran hotter than lava to make up for his youth.

"Hm... not really. Just thinking aloud." Sora grinned at him, control pad gripped tight in his hands. Riku was so close, he could smell the blood under his skin.

His teeth itched.

Riku tipped his head back to stare at the frozen screen. "About earlier--"

"You should go home to think about it." Sora burst into motion, rolling off the bed away from temptation as fast as he could.

Confusion written all over his face, Riku sat up. "What are you talking about? I--"

Undead strength let the shorter boy yank him off the bed entirely, hustling him towards the bedroom door and down the hall before he could get a word in edgewise. _Don't let him ask, don't let him ask... How could I be so stupid?_ "It's almost two, and we've got class tomorrow." He let his mouth run without his brain attached, a waterfall of words that covered every attempt Riku made to ask a question. Hunger gnawed deep in his marrow, reminding him of the price he paid.

_Riku looks so delicious... No!_

They were on the doorstep before Riku managed to fight free and face his friend, grabbing his shoulder to hold him still. "What's wrong with you?"

They stood so close, Sora felt like he could lean up and snatch the blood right out of his veins. The wrongness of that thought held him statue-still, not even breathing. "I'm hungry," he whispered, voice low. Shame made him look away, knowing his eyes would be changing from the hunger.

Pale lengths of hair fell into Riku's aqua eyes. He shook them away with short, jerky movements. Night was well on its way to morning, dark houses and streetlamps the only watchers on the empty street. "We just had dinner a few hours a... go. Oh." Sora's meaning sunk in, tightening his hands on his shoulders. "I... Is there..." He started to let go, then held on. "Do you want me to...?"

"No!" Sora looked up, afraid of what he might see in Riku's eyes. He only found curiosity and a low heat that shivered down his spine. "You're not food."

"Then what am I?"

All traces of retina and pupil vanished as Sora slammed the taller boy back against the house, hunger growling through him in a mad rush. Riku's knees buckled from the impact, but it didn't matter. Sora held him up, pinned him against the brick exterior of the house with unnaturally strong arms. The surprised grunt Riku uttered smothered as Sora used the opening to twist their tongues together, invading Riku's mouth. Soft flesh brushed his sensitive fangs, warm satin skin and blood-pulse calling to him.

When the blood came, the entire world flipped sideways. Rich heat spread into his mouth, the tiny wound tricking it out so much slower than he needed. Hunger lent an edge to the rush, slowed him down into tight focus. Riku was warm and solid under him, kissing back slowly, learning the ways of it all. He was a fleeting moment of life delicate as a blown-glass sparrow and all the more precious for it. The urgent rush of the kiss faded as Sora focused his attention on the cut, sucking Riku's lip softly between slow explorations of the rest of his mouth.

Fisting the back of Sora's shirt, Riku kissed back. His eyes were only half-open, completely lost to the haze of sensation brought by a vampire's kiss. Adrenalin and desire threaded through the burning cold kiss, hinted flavors dancing on Sora's tongue. Blood rolled in his mouth, not enough to warm but enough to tease.

Their lips fell apart. They leaned on each other for balance. Blood pounded through human veins, right under Sora's fingertips. Every thump of his heart became harder to resist. His bones protested as Sora stepped back, smiling with his blood-smeared mouth.

"That's what you are to me. Think about it while you're deciding." He sped inside before he betrayed himself even more, shutting the door. Even through it, Riku's pulse beat loudly, tempting him. Sora closed his eyes and tried to ignore the ache in his throat and the way his teeth tingled with hunger. Three thousand years of control crumbled beneath the weight of a kiss and a few thumbdrops of blood. More than that and he would probably unravel completely.

After what felt like years of waiting, footsteps joined the heartbeat on the other side of the door. Every step Riku took released Sora a little more, until he was fairly sure he wouldn't chase the human down and pounce on him. Riku, masculine and so delicious, was still on his lips. _Figures he'd taste good._ He savored the taste. It was as addicting as his scent.

"Sora?" Leia peeked out of the kitchen, brown-green eyes wide. "Is he gone?"

"Yeah, he's gone."

She'd covered her hair in a kerchief. Guilt gnawed at him for leaving the dishes for her to clean, but she always insisted. Her apron was a full-frontal one, covered in hand-embroidered butterflies and a yew tree. "Did everything go well?"

Hunger nagged deep in Sora's marrow. It was easier to ignore with the object of his affections no longer so convenient, be he knew he'd pay if he didn't handle it soon. "Well enough, I guess."

"You're hungry." The innocent observation hammered at Sora's conscience.

_Even Leia can tell..._ She bustled around the kitchen, hands always busy. Leia would never let herself get so hungry she became dangerous. "I'll take care of it."

_Amazing, what the night can change,_ he thought, watching as she bustled around. No one would believe the sun-frightened woman of earlier was the same. Incisors glinted as he grinned at her. "Yes, Mommy."

She smiled. "Be careful."

"I will." Grabbing a cap off the rack, he jammed it on his head to cover his distinctive hair. "Off to feed the beast."  


* * *

The day after began as awkward and only got worse. Short of sleep and temper, surrounded by chattering masses of perfectly normal people, Riku couldn't seem to turn around without seeing Sora. Usually in a way that brought everything crashing around his ears again, like picking up someone's dropped books. _What a way to start questioning your sexuality._ Everything he hadn't let himself think about his friend kept crawling to the forefront of his mind, starting with the kiss. Tiny details became vivid and important in his daydreams. Sora's strange mix of clumsy grace, the way his hair sprang out in all directions, the solid weight when he tackled in him gym...

And just when his thoughts started getting distracting, he'd see him again. Sora would just look at him, smirking. _He knows, the undead bastard!_

By the time the lunch bell rang, Riku was sure he'd lost his mind. Even the way Sora stared blankly at the chalkboard inspired lust. When he was able to delude himself that Sora wasn't interested in him, it had been easy to let their friendship go on as it always had. Now he couldn't stop it from changing, in one way or the other. Riku didn't make a dent in considering the chance to travel together. Every time he tried, he got lost in a line of thought.

People crammed into the over-heated lunch room, jamming the tables with ten people at a time, even though there were plenty left empty. Laughter and shouts bounced off the walls, pounding in his head. Riku slipped into a small corner spot with his hamburger and fries and tried to turn his brain off for the hour.

"Heya!" The entire table rattled as Selphie Tilmett plopped down across from him. Ignoring all conventions of lady-like behavior, she twisted and sat her feet up on the bench, purple paw print tights covering all the way up to her shorts. Green eyes peered at him worriedly across a loaded tray. "What's wrong? You look like someone stole your teddy bear." She wriggled into a comfortable place, almost knocking his soda can over with the motion. "Where's Sora?"

He fiddled with the black cuffs of his long button-up shirt. "Hanging out with Tidus. I think he's giving me some space to think." Shrugging, he took a drink of soda. There was never any use trying to keep secrets from Selphie. Sometimes it was like she could read his mind. The best he could hope for was to tell her only what he wanted her to know and hope she missed the rest.

"Space?" One of his fries vanished into her mouth, along with a tendril of brown hair from her pigtail. She pulled it out, grimacing. Her ever-present perfume drifted over to him, thick jasmine that threatened to clog his nose completely. "Why do you need space? I thought you two were double-sticky duct tape."

"He..." Riku considered his words. "Sora told me something really different yesterday. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it."

Another of his fries crossed the blue expanse of chipped table to be eaten. "What did he tell you?"

"It's private."

Her eyes lit up. Riku groaned. _Never tell her that... I'm so stupid._

"Will you tell me if I guess?" The table bounced as she did, crawling up on her knees to lean across and beg. "Please oh please oh please?"

"Fine." He picked at his burger. "Shoot."

"Um..." Chin tilted skyward, Selphie considered. "Was it his grades? He's a straight-A student."

Riku shook his head.

"He's gay?"

"Old news. That was a long time ago." In spite of himself, Riku started enjoying the game. Brooding was impossible around someone like her. He snatched a fry and ate it before she took all of them. The salt stung the cut on his lip pleasantly, sending a ghost of tingles down his spine. It got filed under the list of things he wouldn't think about.

She leaned even farther across the table, neckline scooping low to flash the top of her bra and a thin nylon strap. "What about the part where he's in love with you?"

The fry stuck in his throat. Riku grabbed his drink to get it down, half-choking.

Selphie either didn't notice or misinterpreted his reaction. "Or was it that he's the walking undead, doomed to wander the Earth for a lonely eternity while feeding off the lifeblood of the very people whose affection and mortality he values for the brief companionship they offer in his loveless existence?"

He was able to swallow the fry, but her depth of insight was more difficult to down. "How did you know?" Breath wheezed through Riku's battered throat, tasting of soda and French fry. He wasn't even sure which part he meant.

"Anyone can see Sora's ears-high in love with you," she confided loudly. Several people at nearby tables stopped their conversations to stare. Selphie kept on, oblivious to their scrutiny as always. "Why do you think Kairi gave up?"

Sinking through the floor or a nuclear meltdown seemed like the perfect options. It felt like everyone in the school was staring. "She moved!" he hissed, standing up to push her back into her seat. "And will you keep your voice down? It's kind of private!"

"But she gave up months before she moved." The girl settled back onto her bench aristocratically. She gave up on appearances and just took his whole fry container. "Sora staked his claim. No one's tried since."

"Girls like me!"

Evil tinted her smile, like poisoned chocolate. Or french-fry salt. "But they like Sora more."

He accepted that with an easy shrug. People admired him, or wanted him, but everyone liked Sora, from the meanest of teachers to the shiest of chess club members. "Yeah, they do. So why didn't anyone tell me?"

"I thought you weren't that stupid." She waggled a finger at him. "Someone missed the love-struck crazy boy for the trees. Not saying who, but his name sounds a lot like 'peek-a-boo'."

Deep blue eyes met his across the lunch room. Sora waved cheerfully, then headed over to a different table, still giving him his space. "I've been wrapped up in Sora, haven't I?"

"Like Christmas paper, bright boy. Have a fry." The container was shoved under his nose.

He accepted the "reward", chewing while in thought. "It's still kind of weird no one told me." A thought occurred like a sucker punch. "You'd think people would want to save me from his gay clutches."

"I already told you. People like Sora." Flower-decorated nails tapped the smooth surface of the table in a military staccato. "No one wants to hurt him."

Conspiracies to reserve him for his best friend seemed a bit far-fetched, even for Selphie. "Did anyone think I just might be heterosexual?"

"No." The last of his fries vanished and Selphie stood to go mooch off someone else, her own tray still untouched. "Not the way you look at him. I've seen pregnant women look at food like that. Except more scary."

"What about the other thing?"

The question stopped her. "What other thing?" Selphie bounced off, leaving Riku alone with too many things to think about.   


* * *

Classes of any kind had never been such a strange combination of dull and nerve-wracking. He'd been through almost fifty years of varying shades of education, since it became required for people in his apparent age-group. While it meant he knew the curriculum backwards and forwards, it also made school a torture medieval priests would have delighted in.

As last period Calculus flowed by, all of Sora's thoughts riveted on Riku rather than mathematics. He knew the human needed some time to decide. Sora wasn't asking a simple thing, and he wouldn't want him to give up his life on a whim. But the enforced wait had him fidgeting in his seat and staring blankly ahead, lost in thought. More than one person had asked him if he was sick, and Tidus kept shooting Riku knowing looks. It was almost as bad as the sighs Selphie let out every time he passed her in the hall. They'd talked at lunch, and the stars in her eyes said Riku told her something that got her all aflutter.

Yes, Riku needed time for thought, to consider his options away from the pressures of expectation and friendship.

_I'll just have to seduce him._

It had been decades since he'd actually seduced someone. Most of his lovers were friends that turned into more. _Flowers...? Nah, too girlie. He'd laugh at me. I could strip naked, but then he'd run._

His thoughts were interrupted when a paper football landed on his desk.

~You're staring again. What's up? You can tell me. T~

While Miss Matherson pulled an equation from the text book, Sora twisted to check the desk behind him. Tidus' blonde head was down, sketching something obscene into the wood of his desk. Quickly, Sora turned back around before he was called out. _What to say...?_ Under the red scribble, he wrote his reply.

~I kissed Riku last night. I'm trying to think of a follow-up.~

His fingers folded it back up blindly under the desk, Other students pointedly ignored the blatant note-passing. So close to graduation, everything was review and busywork. They were almost as bored as he usually was. The paper triangle sailed through the air overhead, carefully aimed. Snickers erupted around them when it bounced off Tidus's head.

"Shit!"

"What was that, Mr. Pierce?" Miss Matherson glared over her math book, spectacles looming low on the bridge of her nose. Sora turned to look at him with the rest of the class.

"Nothing, Ma'am. Something bit me." Tidus flushed deep red under his volleyball tan.

"See to it that future expletives are suitable for school, if you please." The math teacher turned back to the board, book in hand. Her droning picked up where it left off.

The next note was scribbled so badly Sora had to squint to figure it out.

~You did? How'd it go? Did he bang you? I've got money riding on you.~

Before Sora could pen a reply, the clock ticked its last, announcing the end of class with a shrill ring that split his ears open. Tidus was at his side before he finished standing.

"Well? Tell me already!"

Excitement radiated off him in waves. Sora laughed, because it seemed like the thing to do. "He's thinking about it."

"Just thinking?" Tidus slapped the back of his head. "Don't let him get away, you've been after him for too long!"

"What should I do then, oh granter of wisdom?" Sora slung his bag over his shoulder and dodged around students as they made their way towards their lockers. "Fall on him?"

"You're sure he's not straight?" Tidus ducked a flying English book, dancing around Sora like an over-excited puppy. "I know he was checking out Carrie in Home Room last week."

"He kissed back." The vampire shrugged. "Won't know until he thinks about it."

"You'd better let me know how it goes." Tidus tossed a companionable arm over his shoulders. "Come on, Loverboy. Ice cream. My treat."

Never one to turn down food, Sora grinned. "As long as it's fast." In the back of his mind, he wondered what Riku was doing after class.   


* * *

"I'm home!" The door slammed behind him. The sound echoed, a hollow sign of desolation. Riku dropped his bag by the welcome mat, eyes skimming the pin-point neatness of the living room. The coffee cup he'd left on the glass table had vanished, meaning the maid had stopped by. He passed the cold white leather couch and headed straight to his room. It was the only place the maid wasn't allowed to touch, and he welcomed the comfortable disorder as his own.

He collapsed on the unmade bed, draped on his stomach with the white comforter bunched at his feet. Movie posters littered the walls, along with newspaper cut outs of strange archaeological finds. Bits of pottery and a massive piece of Egyptian lime stone had places of honor on his shelves, little plaques noting each one's significance. None of it was special, but his small collection of museum rejects was a start of things to come.

With a stretch, He slapped the answering machine on. It beeped.

"Riku, darling, your father and I are stuck over in Paris. They've called an emergency meeting-- stock market has people in tatters, you know how it is. We're not going to make it home in time for your graduation, but we'll send a gift. Loves!"

Snorting, he buried his head in the plain white pillow, breathing through the thick cloth. _Yeah, I know how it is._

A loud ring ricocheted around the room. He ignored it, burying his face deeper in the pillow. Stress from a half-dozen unfinished and questionably wanted fantasies weighed down every bone. "Go away world!"

The answering machine picked up. "Hey, Riku!" Sora's voice was loud and fuzzy over the speaker. "I know you're up there. Poke your head out the window."

Before conscious thought kicked in, he kneeled on the bed and reached for the window. The pillow rolled under his knees until he kicked it away as he slid the blinds upward.

Cell phone in hand, Sora beamed at him from three stories in the air.

"Hell!" Riku threw the window open. His knuckles stung as the lock grazed them, taking a shred of skin with it. Grabbing a fistful of t-shirt, he yanked Sora inside. Unprepared for the sudden assistance, Sora tumbled forward against him, which toppled Riku backwards onto the bed. Thick summer sunshine streamed through the open blinds, turning Sora's hair rich gold where it touched it.

"Oof," the smaller boy muttered, squirming so his face wasn't buried in Riku's chest, knees on either side of his left thigh. "Trying to kill me? There's easier ways." He didn't seem in a hurry to move.

"Trying to kill you?" Riku rolled his eyes downward to glare. "You're trying to kill me! What did you do, fly up there? People will _notice_!"

Head tipped back, Sora blinked at him, then jabbed his cell phone into his side. "Riku. Buddy. Fire escape."

Pink crawled up Riku's cheeks like a choking vine. "I remember that!"

"Sure you did." Sora pushed up to stare down, grinning with suppressed laughter. "You forgot."

"Shut up!"

"You did!" The vampire leaned down until their noses were almost touching. "Admit it." His eyes sparkled, wide and bright with happiness.

The room narrowed around him as nerves danced under Riku's skin. Every inch of air between them gained a new importance and interpretation. He could feel the heat of Sora's skin against his thighs, well-worn jeans too thin to hide anything. It was hotter than it should have been, almost feverish. _Maybe that's me,_ he thought, hand brushing down Sora's back. "You're not cold."

"Huh?"

Riku fought the urge to squirm. It would create a whole new form of embarrassment. His stomach twisted anyway. "Last night you were cold... And now you're not."

Everything softened, a tension seeping away before he'd known it was there. "I ate on the way over. My body temperature does weird things when I'm hungry."

For some reason, Riku couldn't seem to get his voice to rise above a whisper. "Are you hungry now?"

"I'm always a little hungry." Bright chestnut hair brushed his cheek as Sora tipped his head, waiting.

Heart pounding in his ears, Riku leaned up and brushed their lips together. The blue in Sora's eyes spread, bleeding into the whites. Their lips touched again, more firmly, and then again.

Weight pressed him down onto the bed as the careful, soft kisses went on and on. It was a mirror of their first kiss, similar but exactly different. There was nothing hard or rough, just a delicate slow rush of warmth. Need rose in a tide, pooling in his lower stomach. Sora took pains not to crush him, their bodies barely touching from hips to chest. It was maddening and wonderful.

Tenderly, Sora's tongue traced the cut from the night before. Something clicked in his head, and Riku found himself drowning in a storm of heat and aching want that sent blood rushing to his groin. Pleasure dragged out of his lip, tracing through his veins like some kind of drug.

It was bleeding again.

Completely blue eyes widened in worry. Sora tried to pull away. His weight lifted off Riku's hips, mouth pulling away.

Riku's arms tightened around his shoulders, leg twisting at the knee to pin him in place. Their kisses turned deep as Sora fought his own urges with more human ones, tongue only gliding over the wound occasionally, then pulling away to explore some other part of his mouth. He could feel the other boy's tension as sharp blood filled their mouths again. Some of it went down his own throat from the force of the kiss, but Sora got the majority of it before he finally broke away.

"I'm sorry," was the first thing out of his mouth.

"For what?" There wasn't enough air in the world with Sora above him like that. He managed not to pull him down again, barely.

"I didn't mean to bleed you."

"It's okay." Propping himself up on his elbow, Riku touched the wound with gentle fingers. The blood was already slowing. It didn't feel at all like Sora had made another cut. "What happened?"

"Anti-coagulant in my saliva. Other things too." The vampire's face tightened with worry. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not. It felt good." He could feel the world adjusting around him. _So much for the 'I'm not gay' argument._ It hadn't been a good one anyways. Whatever was happening between them, Sora obviously had as little control as he did. It made Riku comfortable, in a perverse sort of way. "If we're going to do this, I should know what I'm getting into, right?"

"Do this?" Sora turned redder than anything Riku could achieve. He sat up rapidly, looking ready to bolt for the door. "It-- I--"

"Not that, you sicko!" His arms tightened around Sora's shoulders. "I meant traveling together, numb nuts."

"You're thinking about it?"

"Yeah." The bleeding had stopped almost completely, so he smiled. "Maybe. But I want to know more before I decide."

"More?" Sora's eyes were locked on his mouth. He swallowed, Adam's Apple bobbling. "About what?"

Riku pushed himself upward until they were eye-to-eye. "A lot of things." He kissed him briefly, enjoying the vampire's expression of disarmed shock. "Like what I've been hearing about you staking a claim on me?"

If Sora hadn't already been questionably living, Riku would have worried at the color he turned. "I... Er, I can explain..."

"It sounds to me like you scared Kairi off."

"Maybe just a little." He leaned away.

Riku leaned closer. "That was more than a year ago. Why didn't you tell me sooner."

Sora shrugged, but his hands crept around Riku's waist. "You weren't gay."

That shocked a laugh from him. "And I am now?"

Faded sunlight caught the tips of Sora's eyelashes where they'd bleached pale gold. "You tell me."

They kissed. It lingered like sugar on their lips. Still connected, Riku murmured, "Less than hetero."

"Good one." Sora settled in his lap, head tipped against his shoulder. "What other things do you want to know?"

"Well..." His fingers traced Celtic knots over the vampire's spine, tracing the smooth lines of muscle and bone. "Did you know Selphie knows what you are?"

It was like Sora turned into a wooden doll for all the life he showed. Only the heat pulsing from him meant anything to Riku. A too-long moment of deathly stillness passed quietly, then Sora lifted blank eyes to him. "How?"

He wasn't shaking, but that worried Riku more than if he had been. Terror whispered that if he closed his eyes even to blink, his friend would be gone forever. "She rambled it out at lunch today. I don't know how she found out." Soothing pets down Sora's back soothed Riku more than Sora. "Talk to me. What don't I know here?"

Sora shifted closer, still unnaturally hot. Cherry red t-shirt material bunched between them as the vampire squirmed close. His legs wrapped around Riku's waist, using his knees to lock them together. Child-like, he buried his face under the silver waterfall of Riku's hair, against his neck.

"It could be really bad, if people find out vampires are real." Sora's voice was quiet, but a edge in it set Riku's arm hairs to standing. "Really, really bad. There's maybe a hundred of us. We couldn't protect ourselves if..." He pressed closer, until Riku could feel his eyelashes against his neck. The next sentence came as a hissed whisper. "And people will do terrible things to never die."

_How many of those things were done to you?_ It snatched at the tip of his tongue, but Riku held the question back. When Sora was ready, then it would probably come up. Instead, he moved back to a slightly safer subject. "Do you want me to talk to Selphie?"

"I will." The heat coming off Sora's body was almost comforting, like a fire-warmed teddy bear. "If something bad happens, I can handle it."

"It's Selphie-- what could happen?" Riku winced, but Sora didn't seem to be offended. He burrowed deeper into Riku's arms, like he'd crawl inside him.

"I really don't want to talk about it. Please?"

Something about having Sora curled around him, his soft breaths and muted heartbeat that made Riku's breath catch. The sun vanished in a final blaze of reds and purples outside, but inside he felt like he was holding spun moonlight. And if he didn't hold tight, it would vanish forever.

"I want to go with you."

The heartbeat stopped. The warmth pulled away until Sora was sitting on his knees, accusing, _human_ eyes staring at him. "You don't mean that. It's only been a day!"

"So?" Letting himself relax, Riku collapsed backwards.

He heard Sora rustle the sheets as he rearranged himself. When he looked, Sora's jaw hung loose. "How can you decide so easily?"

"It's not much different than sharing a dorm in a University, is it?" he asked mildly, eyes roving his collection of "treasures". "So we travel instead of room. It's good experience."

"What about the... gay thing?"

"If we break up, we can still be friends."

"That wasn't what I meant." A hand touched his knee.

"Are you planning on draining me dry?"

"_No_!"

"Turning me into a vampire?" He held his breath. It had never come up, but the possibility...

"I..." The pressure on his knee flutters and vanishes. Everything on the bed shifted left as Sora curled his knees up. Riku wedged his feet under Sora's back and tipped him over, following with a slow pounce that anyone could have avoided if they'd wanted to. Sora didn't want to.

"Then it doesn't matter." Their eyes met. Sora looked lost between elation and fear. "You're still Sora, Even if you _are_ on a liquid diet." He smirked. "Girl."

The pillow smacked him upside the head. "Bastard." Their lips met somewhere between them in a mix of emotion Riku didn't even both trying to name. The twists in his stomach were soothed by the knowledge that it was _Sora_, and somehow that threaded through every tiny, feathery kiss they traded.

The sun was long gone before they stopped, cheeks nestled together in the darkened room. Riku held Sora tight, arms around his waist. The night inspired whispers. "Why aren't I scared of this?"

"I don't know. You should be." A kiss pressed against his neck. "You should be."  


* * *

Sora waited days to corner Selphie somewhere private. For being an apparent bubblehead, she was hard to pin down. Even infiltrating the girls' bathroom had only gotten him some strange looks, a purse over the head, and no Selphie anywhere at all.

After days of laying in wait, he finally found her in the band room the day before graduation, running through a slow lullaby on a mirror-bright flute. Waterfalls of sound cascaded from the thin instrument, too loud to be natural and too perfect to be otherwise. There was a book propped open on her music stand, but her eyes were closed.

Sora waited, back against a wall as she trilled through every note she could and some that were so high even he couldn't hear them. They vibrated in his bones, shivers of sound. Music-themed inspirational posters looked to have been put up randomly. Pictures of competitions won and trips taken were seated between. Selphie wasn't in any of them.

When she finished and lowered the flute, he took a seat next to her on one of the metal fold-out chairs. "You're good."

Selphie smiled at him brightly. Heart-shaped clips and butterflies pinned loose tendrils of hair out of her face. She looked like a pixy, young and innocent. "Thanks."

"I didn't know you play."

"Private lessons." The flute cradled like a baby doll in her arms. Her shirt had ridden up around her midsection. When cold metal touched skin, she yelped and yanked it back down. "I didn't want to play in the band. How are things with Riku?"

It was the opening he needed. "Great. We're together now."

The music stand jolted when she accidentally kicked it while squirming in place. "Yeah!" The cheer bounced off the ceiling. Mossy eyes lit up as she stared off into her own little world. "I was rooting for you! It's just like Brendan and Lady Raven."

Confusion followed her around like a puppy she'd fed once too often. "Who?"

"It's this movie that came out years and years ago. A vampire spent eons and eons alone with only her ravens for company and then she met this human boy who had a curse and everything he touched died but she was already dead so it couldn't hurt her and then a sorcerer came and he wanted Brendan for some kind of thing to take over the world and Raven had to fight all sorts of monsters in this _gorgeous_ pink leather thing that was cut all the way up to here..."

By the time the run-on sentence became incomprehensible, Sora tuned her out. It was the only thing to do when Selphie started rambling. "Not interested" never occurred to her, and staying on topic was equally foreign. The twists in her line of logic could give a sane person migraines.

"... And I was all like 'whoosh!' and Tidus screamed like a girl and he went all day without realizing I'd put the sticker on his forehead and then we went and got some really yummy burgers with this _sogood_ tomato sauce that was just like what that monster tomato in "Die On a Fry" would taste like and I bet it was made out of what was left when the Selikin's exploded it..."

A glance at the clock told him she'd been talking for seven minutes. Worries about what she knew melted away. A theory about what happened began to form in his head. "Hey."

Half-way through a discourse on homicidal vegetables, she cut off mid-sentence.

"You know that none of this is real, right? There's no such thing as vampires or ghosts or giant tomatoes of doom with teeth like a dinosaur."

Woe spread over her face like killer-tomato juice. "Of course it's not." Tears threatened to spill over, but it was ruined by the grin she couldn't quite erase. "It's not my fault if reality won't answer my calls."

"Try voice mail," Sora advised sagely before bursting out in laughter. The human girl was a short breath behind him. Life bubbled out of her, thick and tempting. His stomach growled, the very blood in his veins racing with the hunger. _She won't miss a little... right?/_

"Hey, Selphie?" She looked up, face pink from giggling. He stretched his aura, encasing her. It was the only trick he had, but it beat whacking them over the head. "Sleep, Selphie. Sleep."

Green eyes widened a fraction of an inch before she relaxed, limbs loose and languid. Guilt tried to gnaw his conscience, but he shut it up. She was a friend, but he wouldn't take much. Just enough to last until he found a more anonymous meal.

Sometimes he could hate himself.

He chose the inside of her forearm, where a bruise from something or other was just starting to purple. Just before his teeth sunk in, he glanced up, forcing himself to watch the face of his victim, even if she wouldn't remember being it. Something like awareness ghosted through her eyes, freezing him in place, teeth already dimpling her skin. Then it faded away, covered by a haze of sleep. Reassured, he bit down, teeth sliding cleanly into smooth flesh. Shocks of heat-lighting pooled in his stomach, tight and hot as the flesh around his fangs. Even with his nose pressed to her skin, her perfume swamped out all traces of her natural scent. Deep in her throat, Selphie whimpered, head lolling back on her shoulders as sensation penetrated through the induced fog in her brain.

Selphie's blood fizzled, like nothing he'd ever tasted before. It was a mouthful of carbonated sugar, laying a thick coating heavy on his tongue. _No wonder she's so hyper all the time._ Two swallows were more than enough to set his head buzzing. He let her arm drop back to her side. The marks fading neatly into the existing bruise. His entire brain felt jumpy, disconnected, shivering down his spine with the urge to do something, anything.

Ready to bounce off the walls, he retracted his aura, which had gone unruly around the edges as his control slipped. "Wake up."

Laughter picked up right where she left off, her giggles high and piercing. Again, he found himself joining in, though he wasn't sure why. They laughed until it hurt, leaning on each other for support when their stomachs started to cramp.

"Hey, Selph." He'd never called her that before, but the extremely random urge to give her a nickname would not be denied. Quite a few things were making much more sense than they ever had before, such as the impact of killer vegetables on society.

"Yeah, Sore?"

The quip seemed much funnier than it actually was, and they returned to sniggering themselves back into pain. Sora couldn't catch his breath no matter what he did. Since he didn't actually need to breathe, it was ironic and kind of worrisome. Energy tried to connect his toes and brain in little lances of sugared joy.

Eventually, he managed to calm down enough to speak clearly. "You know how Nightwitch Two is coming out?"

She nodded repeatedly, so hard he could almost hear her brain rattling.

"I want to go, and I know you do to. Why don't we grab Tidus and Riku and make it a group thing?"

Her face lit up like a Christmas tree ornament. "Costumes?"

"Wouldn't be the same without it."

Squeals of joy rebounded off his eardrums as she tackled him. Together they tumbled to the floor, chairs and music stands giving way with a painful crash. "Yes! Yes yes yes yes _yes_!" She kissed his cheek repeatedly, squirming in ways that brought longing thoughts of Riku to mind. "Thank you!" The show finished with a kiss smacked directly on his lips.

Just briefly, he smelled metal and sulfur before her perfume covered it. Something hard pressed against his ribs, an awkward shape tucked away inside her blouse. His sugar-drenched mind connected the odd feeling with something else entirely. "Um, Selph, you know I'm gay, right?

She stared down uncomprehendingly, knee between his thighs and skirt hiked up. "Yeah?"

"... Never mind."  


* * *

Their last week of high school sped by in a blur Riku never could have expected. School was a joke, with nothing looming by way of tests and only the strictest of teachers even taking attendance. He spent most of his time with Sora. Even more than before, they were hardly ever apart. In classes, they enjoyed the reactions of their female classmates. They'd agreed not to bother keeping their relationship secret, and watching the female population of the school droop more with every touch turned into a hobby.

Away from school they talked about the future, the past, anything and everything just as they always had. The only difference from friends to more, as far as Riku could see, was that their conversations tended to turn into make-out sessions. Neither boy complained. Sora almost never went home, causing Leia to show up at Riku's door every night with food, though Sora tried to make her stop. She just smiled and kept doing it.

Sora called Professor Oran, who he claimed was a werewolf of old lineage, and they planned to move at the start of the fall semester. A few semesters at a normal university, they agreed, would let them get the basics out of the way before taking off. Riku's college fund was more than enough to get him into any school he chose, though his grades wouldn't hurt. Trellis University, the school where Prof Oran taught, seemed to be the best choice. Applications were sent, websites browsed and dreams made.

Before he knew it, graduation day arrived with a burst of birdsong and speeches. The school lawn was unnaturally green in the early morning sunlight, which was explained by the tiny residue of paint left on his fingers when Riku plucked a piece of grass. They'd been put in order of last name. Sora, who used the name Eldsang as a joke no one seemed to get, was already on stage, fidgeting in middle of the universally taller sea of black-robed students.

The Dean spoke at length on futures and responsibilities. It was the usual graduation speech. Riku barely noticed it. He'd heard the whole bit of tripe at rehearsal, and didn't see a reason to bother. Instead, he thought on Sora. There were moments when he froze up and his eyes looked somewhere into the past. He always looked so lonely when he came back to himself. More and more, Riku found himself wanting to make those times vanish, to wipe the haunted ghosts of memories from his eyes.

"Riku Wellrond."

He started. Somehow his classmates had vanished around him. Sora's eyes met his as he rose and paced the length of the stage. Diploma exchanged hands, tassel flipped, and the moment sped by. Before he knew it, caps were flying through the air and it was all over.

They'd graduated.

Something he'd been waiting for most of his life, and it was over. Watching Sora scramble to catch his cap, he wondered why he wasn't nervous.

When Sora's eyes met his, he had his answer. There were much bigger things to think about.

The milling mess of new graduates began to break up, mixing into the crowd of family members and friends. No one was waiting for him down there, so he fought the tide of black robes, locked on the shock of chestnut spikes that were barely visible over the heads of the taller students. They vanished suddenly, ducking down and out of sight. As Riku tried to recall if there was a set of stairs in that area, something wrapped itself around his knees. People shouted and darted out of the way as he went down, the temporary stage rushing up to meet him.

"Oof!"

Bright eyes peered down at him. They were, Riku couldn't help noticing, the exact same shade as the sky overhead, a deep hue that defied all traditional definitions of "sky blue". "Are you alright?" Sora's fingers raked through his baby-fine silver hair, cradling his head off the floor. Feet moved all around them, leaving the platform. "Did you hit your head?"

"Urg." He tried to glare at his attacker, but it was impossible to stay mad when Sora bubbled with happiness. "No."

The stage around them was rapidly clearing, only a handful of people loitering around. Long familiarity with the two of them kept people from staring, though one or two comments about the "fags" did make themselves heard before being shut up by more accepting people. Riku felt dimly grateful as Sora squirmed until they were nose to nose. He tried to glare harder.

"Aw, don't be that way." Their noses rubbed together. Against his will, Riku's bones began to resemble jelly. "I only do it because I love you."

"You just like the way I taste," the crushed boy grumbled, leaning upwards to steal a short kiss.

"Ahem." Together they looked upwards. The principal stared down at them, fingering his necktie in disapproval. "Boys, don't you think this is an inappropriate place for such... activities?"

Under the critical gaze of the principal, grinned and yanked Sora down against him. "Not really." Their lips met in a brief but messy clash of tongue and teeth.

Choking sounds came from above them. "Boys!"

Sniggering at the way his face turned purple, they scrambled to their feet and scurried down the stairs off the stage. The principal harrumphed and stalked off.

"Did you see his face?" Sora asked, hanging on Riku's arm to keep balance as he laughed. "I thought he was going to scream!"

Riku wrapped an arm around his waist. "Maybe if he'd kept up he would have--"

Someone touched his shoulder from behind. "Riku?"

_Oh no._ He couldn't be sure what his own expression did, but he saw the humor dim out of Sora's eyes. The slowly emptying courtyard felt much colder. It became harshly clear that the stage couldn't be missed from anywhere on the lawn.

"Dad." Slipping free of Sora, he turned. "And Mom. You said you weren't coming."

"The meeting was canceled unexpectedly. We caught a red-eye." Calipher Wellrond hadn't towered over his son for two years, but he managed to give an impression of being ten feet tall. The razor-sharp creases of his designer suit and the hair-perfect trim on his black goatee were intimidating as an executioner's chair. Premature gray hair fell into his eyes, the lone black streak a smudge of shadow. "Sora. You've grown since we last saw you."

Sora, who hadn't grown at all, smiled. "Thanks." It may have been Riku's imagination, but Sora leaned a tiny bit closer to him. Even if it was in his head, the show of solidarity made him feel better. "Nice to see you."

His mother sighed, sunlight blonde hair pulled back into a strange kind of half-twist. Her perfectly painted lips tilted downward enough to express displeasure without risking wrinkles. "Now Riku, don't be like that."

"Like what?"

"As though you'd rather we left." Her face took on a pleading expression that never touched her sea-green eyes. "You're our baby. You're about to go to a university and maybe even find a nice girlfriend--"

"Aramina." Calipher placed a restraining hand on his wife's arm, eyes on Sora. "I don't believe this is the time or the place."

"I already have a boyfriend."

The moment froze. Riku almost expected a tumbleweed to roll by. Sora stopped pretending to breathe, and both his parents wore the perfectly blank faces he'd seen them close business deals with.

Finally, Calipher moved, face so stony Riku was surprised it didn't crack as he spoke. "We saw."

Aramina smiled too-brightly. "All boys go through a period of confusion."

"Huh?" Sora beat him to the question.

There was a glassy sheen to her voice, a fragile rendition of someone trying to be well-meaning. "Oh, don't worry Sora. I'm sure your friendship will be just fine."

Riku wished they'd just go. "So you think Sora and I are-- what? An experiment?" He met their eyes boldly. "Just a fling?"

A hand touched his elbow. "Don't." Sora's skin was hot, refreshed by someone else's blood. A flare of jealousy spiked, quickly shoved down.

_Jealous of my boyfriend's lunch. How low._

"Why not?" He met Sora's eyes. The black gown took away the tan that rested on the very outer layer of his skin. "They--"

"They'll get over it." The vampire's smile, just a curve of the lips, said everything Riku needed to hear. "We can't change their minds. They'll figure it out eventually."

Someone cleared their throat. When Riku turned back to his parents, they seemed to fade into their own perspective. "You're right." He looked at the people who had raised him. They looked back, briefcases in hand, cell phones still on in case someone needed them for business. They should have been celebrating or arguing, and they weren't even going to stay to yell at him.

"Do you even care?" He didn't realize he'd spoken until Sora's hand squeezed his arm. If anything, Calipher and Aramina's expressions closed even more. "Why come? I'm not valedictorian, not student body president. Why bother?"

Dark brows knitted as Calipher frowned, but Aramina paled under layers of make-up. "You're our son!"

"So?" He wanted to yell so badly his throat ached with restraining it. But Sora's hand stayed on his arm, an anchor. He wasn't alone. "It's never mattered before."

She fell silent, mouth framing a little "oh" of dismay.

"Don't take that tone with us." Silver hair glinted in the late-spring sunlight as Calipher straightened his shoulders and loomed. "We raised you, fed you, clothed you, saw to your education--"

"Because it reflected back on you." Riku straightened his own shoulders, raising his chin to meet his father's wintry blue eyes. "I remember how mad you were when I transferred from Sarte Private."

"It would have been for the best--"

"I was miserable!"

Calipher never noticed the interjection. "--and if you'd stayed, you'd be on your way to Yale instead of playing around with old bones and bits of pottery." He continued on, red anger creeping up to stain his face. "There wouldn't be any of this 'gay' nonsense. You'd be something!"

By the time he finished, his voice raised enough that people nearby were visibly trying not to listen. Sora gave up being discreet and wormed his way under Riku's arm, head against his shoulder. His warmth radiated through Riku, comforting.

Riku locked his teeth together. He finally had his parents' undivided attention. Acid washed up the back of his throat. "I am something. Come on Sora." His parents didn't follow as they turned away, not even enough to call after him. Walking was awkward, since Sora wouldn't let go of him anymore than he would Sora. Their hips bumped with every step, a heartbeat right between them.

Riku didn't look back.  


* * *

Sora leaned on Riku's bed, leaning to the side to avoid a stray shaft of sun. His not-yet lover paced agitatedly around the bedroom, speculating loudly on his parents. They'd been fully graduated for a week, and Riku had been more and more on edge. Arrangements for their enrollment at Trellis University had already been handled, including off-campus living arrangements. They had no classes, and neither had ever needed a job. The lack of activity gave Riku more time to think than Sora thought was healthy.

"Why haven't they taken my name off the account yet?" he demanded of absolutely no-one. Stride, stride, stride, pivot, repeat. Silvery hair flared in feathery arcs as he paced, hands emphasizing his points.

Since an answer wasn't required, Sora felt himself free to focus on the floor show. Riku had just exited his morning shower when he'd arrived, and had only slipped on a pair of faded blue sweatpants since. They slung low across his hips, barely gripping hipbones, the hollows of which curved up into a flat stomach. His hair had long-since dried in silk tendrils, clumping into soft spikes around his face. It caught the sunlight from the open windows as he paced, gleaming in a way that made Sora long for his pencils. Every line of muscle begged to be sketched, and the tarnished silver trail of hair leading down from his belly button demanded quite a bit more than that. He desperately wanted to discover if he could capture the graceful stalking in line and shade. _Maybe he'll sit for me one day._

As a background to his less than pure musings, Riku continued on.

"Not a single word! Maybe I should get a job. Just in case." His arms inscribed slash marks in the air. "They're acting like nothing's changed!" Riku's eyes flashed in the sunlight, snapshots of the ocean.

_He's beautiful angry._

"Has it?" When Riku turned an incredulous stare on him, he elaborated. "For them, I mean."

"Of course it has!"

His heart twisted in sympathy. Sometimes it was hard to forget their ages. He was so delicate in his mortality, Sora felt ashamed for laying claim to him. "Not for them. We're just 'curious', remember?"

The human kept staring at him, though much less balefully. Finally he slumped down to the floor, fire burning itself out. "That would be just like them."

Sora leaned over the bed. "You don't have to do this."

"You keep saying things like that." Flat on the floor, Riku was able to stare straight up into Sora's eyes. "Am I that much of a drama queen? Want me gone that bad?"

"More like I'm worried you'd be happier with me gone." Hair falling into his eyes, Sora felt like a child again. It was a feeling that didn't occur often, and he treasured it. "You're risking a lot more than I am."

Riku stared up at him, blue-green eyes lowered in thought. Reaching up, his fingers threaded through Sora's hair, gently holding. The vampire leaned into the touch.

"Hey." Dark wood flooring paled Riku's tan out, making him glow like an angel in the sunlight. "Have I ever let you down?"

"This is about me letting you down."

"You couldn't."

"I don't want to cost you your parents." That had developed into Sora's single largest fear, over and above sunlight and fire. Even though his own were dust and ashes, he remembered the pain too well.

"You won't. They did that themselves a long time ago."

White fabric and feathers of the comforter rumbled as Sora scooted farther off the edge of the bed and leaned down. The shaft of light that turned Riku into a heavenly creature burned a tendril of pain across the back of his neck, thick and slow as venom. It would take hours to kill him, but it could. "You really think we'll last?"

A strange hesitation stuttered Riku's breathing. Gently, the other boy lifted up to press a tiny kiss to Sora's bottom lip. "I know I love you. We'll see where it goes from there."  
Sora leaned down to kiss him, opening his mouth when Riku's tongue begged entrance. Under his palms, the edge of the bed slipped away. Riku tried to hold him up, but his own unsteady balance tipped him over. With a crash, Sora tumbled head-first onto the floor and Riku, arms flailing. The comforter followed, a white cloud settling over them both, blocking away the deadly sun.

For several minutes, Sora just lay on his friend, trying to re-orient himself in the world. Over them was the blanket, creating a dim cocoon. Under him Riku's chest rose and fell, his heartbeat a faint pulse through the cage of ribs and flesh. It didn't help put his head back on straight, but it was a nice enough sensation that he stayed there even after the world stopped ringing. His elbow was twisted under him, but mere discomfort wasn't worth losing that heartbeat under his cheek.

Riku was warm against him. Even though he'd already eaten, he had to fight the urge to twist his head and sink teeth into artery and vein, so draw out the blood and pleasure he could smell so close...

Reluctantly, he pressed a careful, closed-mouth kiss to the skin over Riku's heart. He imagined he heard it throb in response. "You don't know what that means to me." A small thrill went through him as Riku smiled at him.

Therefore, he was startled when Riku's hand reached up to cup his cheek, thumb brushing lip and extended canines. Sora jerked away reflexively.

Riku sat up, comforter falling around him like a shroud. His hand curled around Sora's wrist to keep him near. "Don't. I want to know."

"Know what?" Speaking without unclenching his teeth was awkward, but Riku's hand was still on his cheek, dangerously close. "It's not a game."

"I know." The grip on Sora's wrist tightened, pulling him closer. Sora pulled, but couldn't put his full strength into it. A real escape attempt, he knew, would hurt Riku. Determination never to hurt him again kept him still as Riku's thumb pressed at his lips again.

Certain he could hear their tentative relationship breaking, Sora let the thumb push his lip up, and kept it up as Riku's attention moved to his eyeteeth.

"They weren't like this earlier." A nail traced the length of his tooth.

Shivers of pleasure ran down Sora's spine and rebounded back upwards from his toes. "They extend when--" His voice cracked when Riku tapped the point, creating just enough pressure to start them aching.

"When you're hungry?" Every touch Riku bestowed pooled heat in his stomach, set off little bursts of light behind his eyes. It was almost like sex, and that thought alone made him redden. All he could do was let Riku explore. "I thought you weren't hungry."

"There's... other things too." He willed his heart to stop beating. It had become a drum pounding in his ears, holding a beat no living person could sustain for long. It wouldn't even slow, the traitorous thing. The effort, though, did give him something to focus on when the pressure of Riku's fingers forced first one, then the other fang to retreat back into his gums. When they dropped back again, he couldn't keep from shivering.

"Did that hurt?" The hand left his face, but Riku didn't let go of his hand."

"N-no..." Voice throaty and low, Sora _knew_ what he sounded like.

It was confirmed when pink flared on Riku's face, spreading from neck to the tips of his ears. "Oh." He swallowed.

The sound was too loud in Sora's ears, every muscle working to move his gorgeous throat. "Sorry." Nothing else could be said. He tried to catch Riku's eyes, but the human wouldn't look up from their hands, still painted bright red. "I should have told you. They're really sensitive."

"Is that why you won't bite me?"

"Huh?"

"Is that why you won't bite me? Because it feels good?" Riku's tone was fierce, too loud in the peaceful bedroom. He still refused to look up, but his hand on Sora's clenched.

"No!" Sora reclaimed his wrist, surprised when Riku didn't try to keep it. "You're more than a meal."

Their eyes met.

"It's more than food though, isn't it?" Rising to his knees, the taller boy moved closer.

Warm, living skin intruded on Sora's senses, smelling of rich life and soap and the blood that filled it. Teeth already sensitized from the earlier exploration pulsed with want. "You don't know what you're saying."

"Then show me." The tips of their noses brushed. Only pride and a horrified fascination with the way the light accented every dip and angle of Riku's toned body kept him in place. "It's part of you. I want to know what it's like."

"I..." Air shuddered from Sora in a sigh. He'd started breathing involuntarily, and his heart never had slowed. "I can't." The bed frame pressed against his back, cold and unyielding.

"Why?" Anger colored Riku's voice, but his lips pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Sora's mouth. "You do it to other people. To complete strangers."

Heat built between them. If Sora didn't do something, it would burst into one kind of fire or the other. They weren't ready for either. Thoughts of Selphie hovered in the back of his guilty mind. "It's different with other people." A hand brushed the inside of his thigh, up under the leg hem of his shorts. He squirmed. "Only people I can-- make forget." Thought almost derailed as fingers drifted higher. "Who I won't look at and want. Who aren't important." Sliding along the bed, he slipped away from his encroaching boyfriend. "You are."

Riku didn't follow him, but a smile played on his lips. He had almost won the game, and they both knew it.

The vampire used the extra space to regain self-control, frightened by how far it slipped. "I don't--"

"I want it." Aquamarine eyes human-bright, Riku leaned forward, encroaching on Sora's hard-won space. "And you do to."

Sora wondered how those eyes would look as his teeth sliced into a vein. "I won't." He used the bed to push to his feet, less embarrassed by his erection than his eyeteeth. "It's too risky."

"So's sex." Amusement threaded Riku's voice like silk as he stretched, back arching like a wanton offering to the Gods. Sora's knees gave way, sitting him on the bed. Riku crawled up between he knees, body predatory and liquid in ways only a man could manage. "You're not going to keep that from me, are you?" Lips kissed the spot just below his sternum. Even through the cloth, he could feel the heat of Riku's breath.

Eyes closed, focus shattering, Sora whispered, "It's too soon."

The touches vanished. Shaken, Sora opened his eyes to see Riku looking up at him from his knees. "Then soon?"

He didn't trust himself to kiss him, so Sora settled for cupping his cheeks, thumbs feathering over his eyelids. _Those eyes are going to be my undoing._ "We have a lifetime."

"Yeah." The sound vibrated through his palms, deeper in touch than in voice. "A lifetime."  


* * *

"So you're still going out with Sora?" Tidus walked backwards as the ticket line moved forward. A guy in a full-body werewolf costume grumbled as his too-long fur caught on Tidus's spiked wrist brace. "I could have sworn you weren't gay."

"Less than hetero," Riku reminded him. He tuned out the collection of chattering girls in Halloween pancake and faux leather. The second movie of the Nightwitch trilogy was making its debut, and absolutely everyone had arrived days early to get tickets for the first showing. If he hadn't been tricked into being one of those people, Riku would have been disgusted.

"If you like girls, then why...?" The blonde demi-punk seemed completely oblivious to how far his tone carried.

A few people edged casually sideways away from Riku in line, the less publicly-minded openly staring. It prickled his neck, like someone was spying on him. So many people had chosen full-body, elaborate costumes, anyone could be hiding behind all the masks and fur, with almost any weapon they chose. It gave him the creeps. "I guess I like boys too. Mostly Sora." The ticket booth, shiny and lit up with neon lights in the night, came into view as they rounded a bend. "Probably some weird type of bi." His toes curled inward as the man in front of him tread on the tips of his sneakers. "Why did people show in costume to buy tickets? It's not for a week!"

"Who knows. I'm only here 'cause Selphie threatened to feed me to a computer virus." They shuffled forward again. Tidus ignored his blatant attempt to change the subject. "What's buttsex like?"

"_TIDUS_!"

"Sheesh, calm down." He rolled his eyes. "Where did Loverboy go anyways? He's the fan here. We're just placeholders in line."

"To grab a snack and Selphie." _Hopefully not in that order._ He still had no idea how Sora had managed that problem, but it hadn't come up. Selphie never mentioned anything in her occasional sneak-attacks on his apartment, so he let it go. Sometimes he wondered, though. "He wouldn't miss this."

"Not in a thousand years." Arms wrapped around him from behind.

Riku's heart almost stopped. "Sora!"

"Aaaaaand were-Selphie!" A bundle of squirming energy and fake-fur hit him in the stomach just as he was turning. Riku almost toppled under the impact, but a woman dressed in the purple leather of the show's heroine caught him by the elbow with a grin. Tidus was worse than useless, too busy laughing too do any good at all.

"There-Selphie!" Sora laughed somewhere in the middle of the mess.

"Here-Selphie!" She piled up around him, squirming so much Riku almost went down. Grumbling, he pulled himself out of the mix, trying to get enough distance to see them. The reek of hair gel and Selphie's vanilla perfume covered the exhaust fumes from the cars that passed by.

"Well? Whaddya think?" The girl and vampire struck their poses. They, like half of the people in line, had put on costumes. From her furry pantyhose to the fake ears stuck atop her head, Selphie looked like nothing more than a werewolf schoolgirl. She'd even styled her brown hair so it covered her real ears. The costume was surprisingly risqué, showing off cleavage Riku hadn't even realized she had.

And Sora... "Sora!"

"What?" Blue eyes crinkled mischievously.

"Your teeth!" The vampire had elected to come as, of all things, a vampire. His hair had been smoothed into a straight mass that fell to his shoulders. It shined like glass, proof of exactly how much hair gel Sora had been forced to use. A poet's shirt and skin-tight slacks showed off both front and back so well Riku was almost jealous from the way women in line were ogling him.

The finishing touch were his teeth, delicate fangs that stood out when he talked. Deep cranberry lipstick only brought more attention to them when he smiled, which he was doing.

"Cool, aren't they?" Reaching up, the vampire casually popped one of his teeth out. "They're expensive, but don't they look realistic?" He put it back in with a soft _snap_.

"I... Yeah." The silver-haired boy licked his lips. "Very."

"Riku was just complaining that people showed up in costume," Tidus, the tattler, put in. "I think you've got the best ones here."

"Really?" Selphie preened, picking at her fur. Contacts had turned her eyes amber. "I wanted to try them out."

"We really look good?"

"You look great." He did. For all of Sora's short and skinny charm, he pulled off the modern-vampire look well. Riku just wished his shirt hid his chest better. It was distracting. Almost as much as the fangs.

Half a block to the ticket booth, and Riku could still feel people staring at them. _Thanks Tidus._

"So what were you talking about?" Selphie bubbled, playing with her pigtails.

If he was going to be outed to a street of strangers, he was going to reap the benefits of it. "Baby-punk here was announcing my bisexuality to the whole block." Grabbing Sora, he reeled him into an embrace. The lack of spikes against his chin felt weird, and Sora's back fit perfectly against his front. "I was just trying to change the subject when you showed up."

"Hey!" the blonde objected. "I wasn't that loud!"

"You were. The people in the ticket booth were staring."

"Isn't it sweet though?" The token girl in their boys' club gushed, bouncing so hard her ears jiggled. "They fell in love and they're going to get married and have lots and lots of little undead werewolf babies and..." Selphie's babble set people around them laughing.

Sora tipped his head to grin sheepishly at Riku. They were so close, Riku could see his mascara and eyeliner. "She's been daydreaming again," he reported. "She said reality won't return her calls."

The girl in question never stopped talking. "And then they turned into witches will all sorts of magical powers and they saved the world from the wicked lord Humplepuff!" She went on to show the dance said witches would do in their saving of the world.

"Lord Humplepuff?" Riku whispered in Sora's ear, sniggering. "Where does she get this stuff?"

"Who knows? But I bet I can distract her." Fangs flashed as Sora grinned. "Hey! Get over here and help me decide on Riku's costume!"

"My _what_?"  


* * *

"Tell me again why you're doing this?" Sora stretched out his legs to keep up with Riku, concrete jarring his knees with every step. The sunlight was a tight stretch across his skin, a sharp bite that was just past the point of ignorable pain. They'd been out since just after sun-up, and the steady exposure ate at his tolerance levels. The styrofoam cup of ice water he'd bought swished alarmingly as he struggled to keep up.

"Two months before we leave," Riku explained, snagging a "help wanted" flier from a bin. "I want to save a little money before then."

The lunchtime crowd flowed around them, stepping on Sora's feet and ogling Riku's sweat-shined muscles. Wearing a pair of cut-offs, flip-flops and a loose muscle shirt, Riku was a young surfer God come down to play. Even the yellow manila folder filled with applications didn't take away from it. If he hadn't been fighting sunshine and sore feet, Sora would have been slipping in his own drool.

_Instead, I'm slipping in other people's._ "Why? It's not like your account's closed. You still have your trust fund."

The silver-haired boy chatted up a café cashier and added another application to his folder. "It's not about that."

The vampire scooped an ice cube out of his water and ran it over his face and neck to disguise that he wasn't sweating. "Then what is it about? Masochism? It's hot out here!"

Riku turned around mid-step, almost knocking over a teenage girl in a neon pink bikini top and board shorts. She simpered at his muttered apology, but he barely noticed. Where six hours under the sun had darkened Riku's base tan to an inviting gold, Sora knew it had taken away what little color he had. Memory dawned in green eyes. "Shit, I forgot! How much longer..?"

"'Til I'm the world's largest French fry?" Sora shrugged. "A couple hours, but about an hour before you have to carry me around." He wrinkled his nose as another heavy-duty truck passed. The stench of so many people and businesses hung in his nose, even when he stopped breathing.

"I'm sorry--"

"It's alright." Little tingles shot through him where Riku's hand touched his back. They ducked through the crowd together, Riku's touch guiding him from shady spot to shady spot. "You're not used to thinking about it. Just let me find a light-tight room for a few hours and I'll be fine."

"Is it really bad?" They paused under an awning.

The feeling of blackening from the inside-out faded in the cool shadows as they waited for the light to change. Water from the ice-cube stuck tendrils of his hair to his neck and forehead. A group of emo-goths sulked poignantly across the street, probably sweltering in their black pleather and chains. "It's like a slowly worsening sunburn." Sora kept his voice down. "Kind of. Except the longer I'm out, the deeper it goes."

The light changed. A quick side-step saved Sora from being knocked into traffic by a man in a casual business polo. The step sent him bouncing into Riku, who jammed his knee against a sign pole. The man just glanced back, brown eyes flat, and hurried on his way.

"Bastard," Riku grumbled, rubbing his knee as they raced to beat the end of the light. "Too much of a rush to even apologize."

"It's not worth the blood pressure." They turned down a side-street, leaving foot and vehicle traffic behind. Unfortunately for Sora, it meant leaving behind most of the available shade too.

"You have blood pressure?"

"I bleed, don't I?" The rundown little pawn shops and delis they passed seemed sad and decrepit after the shining chrome and glass of downtown. Heat-haze rising off the concrete made it all unreal, something from a dime-store horror. "Anything with a heartbeat has blood pressure. Usually I have one."

Seemingly lost in thought, Riku laced is fingers behind his head. A breeze from a passing pickup fluttered his bangs. "Every time I think I have you pinned, something like this comes up," he commented. "I'll never know it all, will I?"

Sora shrugged, shoulder muscles taking on a tingling hyper-awareness that boded no good. "Probably not. It's kind of something you have to experience."

"Guess so." An odd note in Riku's voice caught Sora's attention, but the human's sweat-soaked back revealed nothing.

"Riku..."

"Race ya."

"What?" But Riku had already taken off, flip-flops slapping asphalt. "No fair!" The vampire chased after the human under the deadly sun. He'd never be able to catch the other boy without accessing a little supernatural ability, but Sora let it slide.

Sometimes it was nice just to pretend.  


* * *

Keys clattered in a dish. "Leia, I'm home!" Riku winced as Sora's yell carried through the house. In interior was cool and comfortably dark after the shining heat of outside. Sora perked up as soon as they were out of direct sunlight.

"Leia?" The vampire skirted around the square of light let in by the living room curtains.

No answering shout came from within the house.

"Maybe she's out for the day." Riku dropped his precious applications on the coffee table, next to the centerpiece of wire fairies and fake fruit. The room was as horrible-looking as ever. Vampires didn't seem to like change much, even when it was for the better.

"Maybe." Sora didn't sound sure, but he added, "She could be out getting dinner or something..." He headed upstairs, sneakers squeaking on the wooden steps. "You coming? I won't even be able to take an open window for a few hours. Sorry."

Riku followed after him, sweat from their race sticking his shirt to h is chest. "I don't mind. We haven't played God Wars in a while."

Unlike last time they'd gone upstairs, Sora's eyes were normal when he glanced back. "Want to get your butt kicked again?"

"You wish."

For a vampire's lair, there was nothing unusual about Sora's bedroom. He had more than his fair share of books and three sets of heavy drapes that kept out all but the most persistent of light. An old fashioned wardrobe hulked in the corner instead of a closet. Everything else was pure teenager, from the anime posters to the lone sock left abandoned half-way under the bed.

"We'll have to start a new game." Sora slapped on a touch-activated lamp, lighting the room by only the barest amount. "The memory cards are still at your place."

"Sure." Riku perched gingerly on the edge of the bed, trying not to strain his ears. The house was silent, quieter than he was comfortable with. Only Sora fiddling around with the game system and wires made any noise at all. Even his own empty apartment had little sounds.

Watching Sora bounce around the television wasn't much better. "Teenager" and "damned old vampire" weren't easy images to connect. "Why do you do that?"

"Huh?" A blue eye and a set of spikes appeared behind the TV stand. A power cord dangled from his mouth. "Wha?"

"You act like a kid. Why?" At the vampire's uncomprehending look, he elaborated. "I'm mean... You've got everything. You're ancient, rich, undead, good-looking. But you don't act like it."

Sora spit out the power cord and dropped down to plug it in. "You mean, why don't I live in a mansion and act like the world-weary cliché I have every right to be?"

"Something like that, yeah."

"I'm not a cliché." Plastic danced at the ends of cords as he unwound the controllers. "I guess I could have been, but the world's so huge, and it changes all the time. I wanna see it all." His eyes stayed glued to the control pads. "A million years isn't enough time to get bored with it." His hands kept moving, plugging in cords and popping in the disk, though his eyes weren't on the task. "The trick's not to be alone. When you don't have friends and humans are just food and-- food, that's when you go crazy."

It echoed his thoughts. "You keep saying I'm not food."

"You're not!"

"Does it hurt?"

"What?" Sora's eyes were glowing again, lamps behind stained glass. Tendrils of chestnut hair frames his cheeks and pale skin. Crouched on the floor, he looked more like a predator than a parasite.

Heart beating faster, Riku shifted farther onto the edge, remembering the rush of pleasure when Sora just nicked his lip, wondering what more would feel like. "When you bite someone, does it hurt them?"

"No!" Sora seemed to forget the game system altogether. "It..."

"Feels good?" He slipped down to the carpet, mirroring Sora. "Really good, I bet. Like sex?"

Impossibly, Sora's skin grew even paler. He nodded, pupils swallowed by a rush of blue.

Riku crept forward, heart loud in his ears in the deathly quiet house. Thoughts wouldn't come in words, just feelings. Nervous and elated, hope and terror that bit deep into his bones. Hand shaking, he reached out to brush a lock of hair out of Sora's eyes. His skin was icy cold, a shade of white just barely away from being corpse-like.

Sora trembled under the touch, breath coming in ragged pants. "Maybe..." The delicate points of his incisors peeked out as he spoke. "Maybe you should go."

"Bite me."

"That's not funny."

"Who's joking?"

"You're not--"

"I know." Never stopping his soft touches, Riku inched closer. "I'm more than just a meal." A scar behind Sora's ear caught under his fingers, a sudden patch of raised skin that made Sora shiver. "It's part of you. I want to know it all."

"You'll run."

"Never." Daring more than his knotted-up courage could believe, he leaned forward and brushed their lips together. "I'd never leave you." Tidy white fangs pressed against his lower lip as he spoke, tempting him to nick himself, just to see Sora lose control.

Something inhuman and ancient with worry settled in Sora's eyes. He didn't try to pull away, but he didn't lean in either. "Riku..."

Nervous energy thrummed through Riku's veins, anticipation and dread that he might be messing up royally mixing into a spine-tingling cocktail. Chestnut chunks of hair brushed his cheeks and forehead as they sat there, touching only at the lips and fingertips. He could feel Sora's breathing, colder than the air conditioner and harsh on his skin, even though the vampire had already proven he didn't need oxygen.

Making sure never to break eye contact, Riku tipped his head to the side, exposing what he hoped was a vein. "I won't leave. Let me give this to you."

Sora visibly broke, arching closer for a second before freezing, eyes riveted. "This..." His voice trembled, hovering over an accent Riku couldn't recognize. "This is going to be weird."

Victory. "Everything always is with us." A thrill shot through to his toes when Sora smiled, showing his teeth clearly.

_Oh God,_ Riku thought, eyes wide. _His **teeth** turn me on. That's so wrong._

"Are you sure?" The vampire seemed to be holding himself back by a thread. "You haven't even known for a month yet."

"I've known you for three years." He tilted his chin higher, braver than he felt. "Do it."

The slice of teeth into his neck was painful and not, a thin touch of razor-edged pressure buried under heat. Sora's lips fastened at the spot. It was sharp and bright, sensation overlaying sensation that ripped a groan from his throat. Skin that had never seemed important before tingled and tightened with newfound awareness, dragging even the smallest touch into crisp clarity. Hands on his back and cradling his head touched fire all through him. Rough carpet against his bare shins was almost orgasmic all by itself, each fiber its own impression of pleasure. Overwhelming and almost madness, he couldn't keep up with individual feelings. They melted and spun, liquid bliss bringing him crashing down into his own body like he'd never experienced it before.

Riku wasn't sure when Sora left off. He slowly swam back to focused thought as nerve endings stopped relaying every moment in detail. Sometime during everything he'd sunk back on his heels. Sora straddled him across the thighs, forehead dropped to his shoulder as he supported him. He radiated heat, practically burned with it. Riku kissed his neck, the only part he could reach easily.

"Are you alright?" Sora's voice came from somewhere under the silvery fall of Riku's hair, soft and uncertain. His arms shook where they wrapped around his waist. "I tried not to take too much, but--"

"I'm fine." Riku's voice cracked like rusty, unused hinges. Or like he'd just had great sex. "That was... wow."

"Wow?" Sora stiffened. "That all?"

"I'm not running." His voice was smoothing, but it still felt creaky. "How often to you..?"

"Every day." Leaning back, Sora's inspected him with now-human eyes. "No more for you for a few days."

"Three bites and I'm out? Thought that was fake." Riku tried to make a joke out of it, since moving noodle-limp limbs seemed like a bad idea. "Maybe I should start wearing white silk to lure you in. Works in the movies."

"You'd look terrible in a dress." Sora's grin faltered. "But I'm serious about feeding on you. The blood loss isn't much, but you should take at least a little time between donations." He tried to pull away, but Riku's arms around his waist held him close.

"Does this mean I'm a regular meal now?" He fell backwards, pulling Sora with him to the carpet. "Fillet mignon?"

"Riku..."

"I know, I know. Not food." The carpet was rough against his still-sensitive skin, but he much preferred the roughness of Sora's calloused fingertips. "How does 'lover' sound?"

Fingers combed through his hair, spreading the silver out in a fan while Sora squirmed into a more comfortable position. "I think I can stand 'lover'."

"Good, 'cause this is happening again."

Sora's snort turned into a giggle and he tucked his head under Riku's chin. "One bite and you get demanding."

"Your fault."

"Yeah. Mine."   


* * *

No one was more shocked than Sora when Selphie appeared on Riku's doorstep two days later. Her arms were piled high with more stuff than he could name, most of it cloth. The only reason he could identify her through the pile was the distinctive charm bracelet one of the hands wore. "What are you _doing_ here?" He tried to see her around the clothes, to no avail.

There was an impression of a smile. "Riku's costume! This is his place, right? He's here?"

"Er...?" Riku was, in fact, in his bedroom, napping. Shirtless. Being Sora's lunch had left its impression, and the vampire didn't want to wake him when he needed the rest and provided a yummy drawing opportunity all at once. "This really isn't a good time."

"You were having sex?"

"What? No!"

"Then it's the perfect time." With that said, she barged straight past him and dropped her things on the leather couch. "Go get him."

"For what?"

Heart starting in panic, Sora whipped around. Riku lounged against a wall, barefoot and deliciously rumpled. He'd put on a black, high-necked sleeveless top of Sora's that hovered just barely at too-tight. It covered the bite marks at his neck, but was worse than useless elsewhere.

He casually wiped his mouth, relieved not to be drooling.

"We're going to pick your costume!" The brown-haired girl actually bounced. "For the movie!"

"We are?" Riku asked genially, arms crossed. "What if I don't want one?"

"Oh well." Her voice was actually chirpy. "You get one anyways, and Sora can talk you into wearing it. You going to shut the door?"

Sora started, slamming the door with more force than was probably needed. "Are you sure we can't do this later?" he asked, eyes tracing the thin slice of tan that peeked above Riku's waistline. His own pants seemed less roomy than usual.

"Yes." Between her patchwork jeans, paint-spattered top and little-girl smile, Selphie didn't fit the decor at all. She was a Raggedy Anne doll in the middle of porcelain china.

_I'm going to miss her._

Before he could start feeling sentimental, she'd dived into her stuff and started tossing it around.

Sora shot a grin at Riku, who was staring horrified at everything she'd brought. "Just give in. It's easier than fighting."

The silver-haired boy shook his head. "I'm not--"

"Dark elf?" Selphie interrupted.

"Huh?"

"Dark elf," she repeated, tossing a pair of pointed ears at Sora. He jammed his back on the doorknob to catch them. "Or Light elf?" Clothes flew all over as she rummaged, pulling up a white dress. It caught on a spiked belt, forcing a brief battle for its freedom.

"No." Eyes narrowed, menacing, Riku glared at the outfit. "I'm not cross-dressing for you amusement."

"But--"

"No!"

"Why not something human?" Feeling the verbal landmines all around, Sora strolled to the couch and started picking through the options. He'd had no idea she owned so many men's clothes. As far as he knew, she was an only child. Her father certainly would never have worn half of what she'd brought. "I don't think Riku wants anything exotic."

"I don't want anything at all."

Selphie crossed her arms, examining Riku with sharp eyes. "He's got the muscles for it."

Something thick and heavy brushed the tips of Sora's fingers. He pulled out a brown leather dog collar. It was battered and scarred, with expired dog tags still attached. "What about this? We can send him as Wyndel."

"Who?" Riku had backed himself into a metaphorical corner, watching them like they'd turn on him any moment. "I'm not going as a slave. Or a fighter."

The white dress fluttered to the wooden floor as Selphie moved to assist Sora in his digging. "He's from book one. Never made it into the movie. He died. Kind of." They examined a shirt, then discarded it.

"He was Saigon's best friend," Sora explained absently. A pair of faux leather pants looked promising, but there was no way they'd take the beating they'd need for the character. "He came back in book two as a villain. He's supposed to show up in this movie. Do you have a pair of jeans we can butcher?"

"Tight jeans?" Selphie added, poking a vest. "But I don't think we have the top."

"Who's Wyndel?" Riku was beginning to look frustrated.

"Ex-slave, ex-fighter. Only human to escape successfully." Sora held up a long coat. He hadn't sewn in decades, but the modifications wouldn't be too much. "We can work with this, and I know he has the boots."

"Hey!" A hollow slap brought his attention back to Riku. The human's teeth were showing in a sharp snarl. He'd slapped the wall. "What if I don't want to wear a costume?"

Sora glanced at Selphie, willing the girl to stay silent. Her face had gone pale, tears trembling at the corners of her eyes. When he looked back at Riku, the other boy's expression had softened.

"I'm sorry." Riku ran his fingers through his hair. "I shouldn't have snapped."

"We should have asked first." The vampire glanced at the coat in his hands. His mind's eye could see Riku in the costume, but... "If you don't want to, you don't have to."

"I just wanted us all to match," Selphie sniffled, eyes watering. "I just finished with Tidus and-- and--"

A wailing girl was not in Sora's plan for the day. Hastily, he dropped the clothing and started patting her on the back. "It's alright, Riku didn't mean to get angry. Right?"

Riku sighed. "Come here Selphie." Together, the two boys hugged her, one on either side. "Just show me what you want me to wear before spending a lot of time on it, okay?"

"So you'll wear a costume?" she asked, nose buried between their shoulders.

"Just promise I get to okay it first."

Sobbing and sniffling turned into a high-pitched squeal of delight in the space of an eye blink. Selphie hugged them both so tightly Sora heard his ribs creak. Riku's face turned purple from the pressure, heating up rapidly next to Sora's cheek.

Just before Sora could start to pry her off, she let go. He lost his balance and had to hold onto Riku to stay upright.

"I'll do the drawing!" She ran to the kitchen, rocking small ceramics in the wake of her passing.

Sora got his feet under him, but Riku stayed leaning. "You okay?"

"Just tired." The taller boy smiled. "She takes it out of you, doesn't she?"

Feet pounded across the floor as Selphie sped by into the hall, dragging a measuring tape like a banner of war. A crash and a loud "oopsie!" followed. Sora couldn't help but start laughing.

"Yeah, she does."  


* * *

Ten minutes after midnight, the shrill ring of the phone snapped Riku out of his RPG-induced game-haze. Slamming the pause-button, he scooped the cordless phone from between the couch cushions. "Hello?"

"Hey." Sora's voice crackled through the line. "Can I come over? Something really weird's going on here."

Game forgotten, Riku kicked his legs up and stretched out on the couch. "What's going on?"

"Leia's still not back, and she won't answer her cell phone."

The worry in Sora's usually light voice made Riku blink. "She's a big-- er, vampire, Sora. I'm sure she can take care of herself."

"No she can't-- that's why she has me!"

"Right." Realizing there had to be more than Sora was letting on, "Grab your things and come over. Tell me about it when you get here." Sensing hesitation, he added, "I have cookies and hot chocolate."

"You're an afterlife-saver."

"Corny bastard. See you soon."

"Bye."

Riku hung up the phone, curiosity and concern gnawing at him. Without bothering to find a save point, he jabbed the power button on the game system. Cocoa was the very next thing on his to-do list. By the time he finished, he figured Sora would have arrived.

The buzzer rang before the milk even started steaming. Sora didn't even wait for him to open the door. He just breezed through with a loaded pack and anxious expression. From the kitchen, Riku watched him collapse face-first on the couch. His spiked hair pointed limply up from within a pile of cushions, resembling an exhausted hedgehog.

Checking the milk and finding it barely warm, Riku strolled out to lean against the kitchen entrance. "You're sure she didn't decide to spend the night out?" The corner of the doorway cut into his shoulder, indenting his flesh until his shifted.

Sora shook his head, still face down. "I haven't seen her for almost two days now."

"You've stayed at my place longer than that." Shifting a strand of silvery hair out of his eyes, Riku tried reassuring the vampire. "Maybe she's with a friend."

The boy on the couch lifted his head. His eyes were red-rimmed. "Leia's barely five-hundred," he explained wearily. "That means she can only take about four hours of sunlight before burning to a crisp. And..." His expression clouded, haunted memories flickering through his eyes. "Something bad happened to her once. She hasn't been the same since; that's why she needs me. I think something really bad happened."

Behind him, the milk hissed in its tea kettle as it began to boil. Riku turned to take it off the stove, asking, "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I can't tell the police, and I'm not a detective. I called some people, but there's nothing I can really do." The backpack dropped to the floor with a thump, metal zippers tinkling against each other. "There's worse things out there than us. For all I know, she could be dead. Really dead, I mean. Non-mobile."

"Don't think it. She's fine."

"I hope so. Cocoa?"

While Riku finished making their mugs, Sora wandered into the little kitchen. He gripped his elbows, holding his stomach tight, hunched in on himself. He was afraid, Riku realized, stirring the chocolate into Sora's favorite mug, the one with the Monty Python bunny. _What could be dangerous enough to scare a vampire?_

"I'm sorry for bugging you with this."

"I was up anyways." Riku handed the vampire his cocoa. "I don't mind." His own cup was almost too hot to hold, but Sora clung to his like his hands were frozen. "You can crash here as long as you want."

He thought Sora looked at him through his bangs. "You're sure? There's a lot of complications..."

"Hang your curtains over my windows and tell your neighbors your Mom took off to visit family." Sweet, thick cocoa burned his tongue as he sipped, leaving a sensitive rough patch behind it. "Sounds simple to me."

"That's not what I meant." Sora's eyes held heat, restrained promise that didn't vanish when he looked down into his drink.

A shiver wracked its way down Riku's spine that had nothing to do with cold. "I don't think that's even an issue."

"I... Then I accept." The smile is fleeting, shy and hungry. Riku hopes it means what he thinks it does. "Thank you."

The sound of a coffee mug being set on the counter is sharp in the silence between them. Sora took his cup and set it aside, standing so close Riku could breathe deep and touch him. Human warmth seeped out of him, smelling of coffee and skin.

Riku took the breath, wrapping his arms around the vampire's waist to make sure they connected.

The thin t-shirt Sora wore was soft against his bare chest, not hiding the lean muscles under it at all. He pressed Riku against the counter, head pillowed against his shoulder, fingers hooked in the belt loops of his jeans.

"I love you." Sora's breath was right against his neck while they held tight. "I never said it, but I do."

Three thousand years old, Riku reminded himself. _How many others..?_ The thought made his heart ache, because Sora had lost them all. The way he'd lose him one day. "I love you too. No matter what."  


* * *

"Can I come in yet?"

"Not yet!" Laughter bubbled in Sora's throat at Riku's impatience.

"I've seen the drawing!"

"Not the costume! Not yet!" Bits of clothing were scattered at his feet, almost finished pieces held together by pins. They'd returned to Sora's place to leave a note for Leia and to get his things, but Riku's costume was a surprise the vampire had no intention of giving away. He'd seen Selphie's sketches, but the real version was going to be spectacular.

"Why did you even bring me?" the human demanded from the hallway. "Not allowed to help, not allowed to watch... You'd better let me carry something!"

Pieces of cloth and sewing supplies vanished into a bag as fast as Sora could stuff them. "Maybe."

"Bastard!"

"I'm almost done -- then you can help." Worry for Leia ate at the back of his mind, forcing his hands faster. Full grown women didn't vanish completely anymore. And if the worst had happened and someone found out what she was and killed her, Riku was in more danger than he was. "Just stay there a little longer."

A half-modified jacket folded itself neatly into the duffle, pins still holding the new seams together. The stitches weren't as neat as they would have been if he'd been in practice, but they were good enough to last. He hadn't had to sew seriously since the Industrial Revolution, and before that Leia had done most of it for him.

They'd never been friends, but a few centuries of living with a person fostered attachment. _I was supposed to protect her._ As he laid the boots on top and zipped it up, he took a moment to pray for her. Maybe one of the Gods would take pity on a fledgling vampire, if only for entertainment.

"Can I come in now?"

Sora glanced around the dim room. Seeing nothing of Riku's costume out, he answered, "Sure."

"It's about time." Riku opened the door, then winced as it bounced off the wall. "Sorry."

"No sweat. Help me finish up in here." Lifetimes of grace showed in the way Sora gestured at his game collection. Nature's clumsiness showed in the way he knocked it over. "Crap!"

Riku's low laughter drifted over him, brief and sharp the way only a human could do it. He sat to pick up the mess. "I'll get it."

Sora blushed and started towards the dresser. "Just get the ones you don't have. If this is permanent, we can come back for the rest later." He opened drawers and started tossing things into a different bag.

"What about the books in the attic?" Bright aqua eyes gleamed at him in the darkness of the room. "They've got to come too, right?"

"They go last." A pair of cartoon-themed boxers stayed discreetly in the drawer as Sora finished with the clothes. "They're delicate."

"Ancient, you mean."

"That too." The room was a boyish disaster, but no longer held anything of value. Other than his clothes and games, the rest could wait. At worst, it would be abandoned and burned with the house if he had to leave town suddenly. "You got the games?"

"Right here. Why didn't you tell me you had Moku no Slave?" Riku held up the game in question. On the cover, a green-tinted warrior in leaves and leather was busily annihilating someone with a chainsaw.

"Because it sucks."

"I'll be the judge of that." He placed the game in the backpack with the rest of them. "We done?"

"Just the curtains and upstairs left."

Riku helped him strip the curtains. Three years of occupation hadn't left much in the way of memories. Most of the ones he had were of Riku, and those went with him wherever Riku did. Still, something like loss tugged at his heart. It was never easy to leave.

"Sora?" Riku looked up at him with worried eyes, body framed by the bare window blinds. His hair gleamed like tarnished silver as it caught the lamplight and threw it back, like golden fairies playing hide and seek in the strands. The human held out a hand.

After only a moment's hesitation, Sora took it. This time, he was taking something more important than books with him. "Let's finish this and go home."  


* * *

"I didn't know you can sew." Riku stared down at his boyfriend in awe. Sunlight spilled around him from the windows. He'd found the only place it didn't reach. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

From where he was sprawled on the living room floor, Sora rolled his eyes upward. His costume for the movie was scattered in pieces around him as he finished fixing a minute error in the hem. A beanbag tomato stuck with pins and needles perched in the arch of his bare foot, bent knee rocking back and forth to keep it balanced. "Staying in character. What teenage boy can sew and admits it? Only Selphie knew, and she was sworn to secrecy."

Disbelief wrote itself across Riku's face. "Sora. You're _gay_. It's not that weird."

The flashing silver sewing needle paused, then picked up. In, out, in, out. "Huh. Didn't think of tha-- OW!" A duffle bag of clothes jumped as his elbow knocked into it. Sora popped his injured finger in his mouth, scowling. "'hat 'urt!" He pulled it out to look at. What had been a mere bloodless pin-prick started bleeding freely from its contact with vampire saliva.

Rolling his eyes, Riku went to the bathroom to retrieve a band-aide. _Adorable._ He rummaged around in the cabinet, finally spotting the familiar white and red box. "Does that happen a lot?"

"What?"

Little strip of plastic in hand, Riku came back to find the vampire sucking on his finger, apparently having decided not to waste the blood. His eyes had gone solid from the miniature feeding. Riku swallowed, tongue thick. "Forgetting about things. Stick it out."

Sora did as he was told. "All the time." Fangs showed as he grinned. "Makes it easy to fake my own death though."

The band-aide crinkled when Riku fumbled in shock. "Easy to what?" Every time he thought he'd become used to the weirdness, Sora came out with something even more shocking.

"You heard me."

"And now I want to now why you'd ever have to fake your own death." Plastic and adhesive smoothed under his fingertips, wrapping around Sora's finger. Only a slight ridge remained as evidence of his foul-up.

There was no mistaking the mischief in Sora's eyes, vampire or not. "How else was I supposed to leave my wives?"

He felt like wooden floor dropped out from under his knees, sunlight dropping into darkness. _He was married?_ Firm, slightly cool skin under his hands edged into his thoughts. Their fingers were twisted together, Sora's tan translucent next to his own, as though the color were a top coat that could be washed right off. The band-aide pressed against his knuckle, harsh compared to Sora's calloused hands.

"Snap out of it." Their faces were only inches apart. _When did he get there?_ "They were centuries ago. I would have broken it easier if I'd known you'd take it so hard." His eyes were human again, tight around the edges.

"But... you don't like girls. You look sixteen!" He sounded like a girl, and he knew it. Distant lovers, gone to time, he could almost accept without jealousy. But a wife had a hold on Sora that Riku knew he could never compete with, even after centuries.

"People used to be parents by sixteen." Sora's other hand feathered over his cheek, comforting. "It's not as bad as it sounds. Kind of funny--"

"How many?"

"What?"

His fist thudded into the couch. "How _many_ wives, Sora?"

Sora grabbed his wrist, tense from the unexpected violence, but his expression stayed soft. Riku felt sick, sure that Sora somehow knew exactly what was wrong. "Four. Only four times."

Hurt melted into red-tinted jealousy in Riku's chest. "Why didn't you tell me?" The tight grip Sora had on his hands kept him from pulling away, though he tried.

"It wasn't important."

 

Red jealousy flared to blue-hot rage. "Wasn't _important_?"

"Riku." Eyes bluer than anything he'd ever known caught and held his. "I didn't love any of them. They were just friends. That's all."

"You don't marry 'just friends'."

"I did." Stress hid under Sora's soothing tone, shivered in his tense shoulders and cold hands. He acted as though Riku were a wounded animal. "They were desperate, Riku. Every one of them had to marry someone their families would approve of, and I was convenient. They all knew I don't like girls. It worked."

"Why you? There must have been someone else." The tight twist of their fingers loosened as Sora caressed the back of his hand. Against Sora's cool logic, Riku felt the rage slipping away, though the hurt stayed.

"I could only stick around a few years. Anyone else, they would have been with for a lifetime." They knelt facing each other, barely touching at the hands. "After I 'died', they were free to live their own lives." Gentle touches feathered across his cheeks and eyelids. Riku blinked, embarrassed to feel the moisture on his lashes. "I never meant to hurt you."

For a long time, Riku stared at the floor through the pale curtain of his bangs. Neither of them moved. Sora didn't even pretend to breathe. The tension drained away like body heat in a cold shower, leaving only an aching numbness. "I over-reacted. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Cool, solid weight settled on him as Sora crawled into his lap, knees spread awkwardly at his hips. "I should have been more careful."

Sora's cheek was on his shoulder, chestnut spikes falling forward to hide his face as he burrowed in. "I thought I'd gotten over it... You're older than sin, of course there were other people." Feeling Sora take a breath to interject, Riku kept talking, needing to get it out before it rotted inside him. "I'm jealous."

"Of what?" The words were muffled against his collar bone. Fingers dug into his ribs. "You're here. They're not."

"They were here before I was. And there'll be more after I'm gone." White t-shirt cotton wrinkled and smoothed under his hands as they slid down Sora's back. "A month. It's been a month, but it seems like forever. And what's forever to me is nothing to you. And then you'll be alone again, until the next one comes along."

"You're more than nothing." Twin points of pressure against his neck said Sora was vamping out, whether from the closeness or hunger didn't matter. "We have a lifetime."

"Not yours. What will you do when I get old?"

"You'll still be you." Sora's hands rubbed his back soothingly, dipping down to tease his hips, then back up to trace his spine and shoulders. "I won't leave. Not unless you want me to."

What should have been erotic was relaxing, untangling knots of stress he hadn't even known were hurting until Sora smoothed them away. "I don't want to leave you. Not for anything."

"Then I won't let you." The simple words falling from Sora's lips had the weight of a vow, sealed by the tender kiss his pressed to the corner of Riku's mouth. Calloused fingers brushed his silver hair out of his face.

Something in Sora's glowing eyes, his soft touch, lifted the last of the weight away. Not sure what he was swearing to, but willing to do anything for Sora, Riku tilted his head to bring their mouths into full contact. A whispered "never" hung in the air between them.

Sora's weight settled against him, body pressed to body. Trembling kisses firmed into something with more purpose. "Day-by-day. We'll take it day-by-day." Fangs scraped his lips as Sora spoke, leaving red scratches where they trailed along.

"Sounds good." Comforting touches took on new meaning as they pressed together, Sora's weight just enough to be distracting without satisfying. He cupped Sora's backside to pull him closer. His hands kneaded firm flesh, drowning in the small sounds of pleasure Sora made.

They kissed, meeting somewhere in the middle in a cluster of teeth and tongues and lips. Sora's faint chill against Riku's chest only emphasized how over-heated he felt. Their precarious balance lasted a breath before they toppled sideways to the floor, the couch against Riku's back slowing their descent. Sora laughed, arms wrapped around Riku's neck to kiss him again, knee pulling him by the hips until their awakening erections pressed together through thick cloth.

Sora's white t-shirt bunched at his waist, baring a precious inch of muscled back to Riku's wandering hands. Wanting more, Riku pulled the shirt upwards and off, throwing it somewhere across the room. Sora huffed and yanked him back down, invitingly flat on his back, lips rouged pink from their kisses. "Try asking next time." His voice broke in a moan as Riku sucked at his neck, teeth scraping. "Bastard."

"You love me for it." A deep, blushing red scrape marked the length of Sora's neck. It was silly, but he felt better once he'd marked Sora as his, the way the healing scars on his neck were Sora's claim. He left a fainter one over his silent heart, just above a dusky nipple which was next, pebbled and soft under his tongue.

Sora tugged on his shoulders, predatory teeth clearly visible as he groaned and tried to thrust upwards without having the leverage. "Clothes. Off. Please."

Uncertainty stilled Riku's hands as he reached for the button on Sora's jeans. Sora stared up at him, lashes thicker than any girl's. The sound of the zipper was harsh in his the silence. It only highlighted that Riku's were the only breaths to be heard. Sora waited for Riku to make his decision. Eyes that glowed a clear sapphire caught his own, spurring him onward as he slipped his hand inside. _Sora knows what he's doing._

The moment of stillness ended. Sora hissed as Riku's hand cupped him, rolling his hips into the friction.

Riku's eyes and fingers traced the imprisoned erection, curiosity and lust mixing in an addictive cocktail. Carefully he stripped Sora out of his pants and boxers. He wasn't a virgin, but Sora was his first boy. He was hard and full in Riku's grip, the skin smooth and soft. _He's bigger than me, damn it._ Something was off from the mental image he'd formed in his fantasies. It took Riku a minute to realize what it was. "You're not circumcised."

Sora's nose wrinkled. "You thought I would be? When I had a choice?" Laughter rumbled through his frame, making muscles jump under Riku's fingertips. "Moving on." The world tumbled, and Riku found himself on his back with a very naked Sora perched on his lap. He grinned and rubbed Riku through his jeans. Warmth shot through from his crotch to his brain and back again, tightening something low in his stomach. The vampire pressed down, laughing as Riku pressed back. "I'm more interested in what's in here."

"You--" Another slow stroke twisted Riku's tongue in knots.

"I think your clothes are getting in the way." Fingers traced the waistband of Riku's black jeans, leaving sensitive trails behind. He shrugged his shirt off, almost falling backwards as Sora stripped his pants. Then they were kissing again. Sora's mouth on his was demanding but careful. More than once Riku almost nicked himself on a fang. Their hips rocked together, hot and cold pressure. It built in his chest, threatening to explode.

Skin rubbed skin as Sora pulled away, eyes shining. "Lubricant." His hands fit to Riku's hips, never stilling completely.

"Bath oil?" Hips rolling upward, Riku felt certain he'd burn to a cinder if Sora didn't do something.

"It'll do." Weight vanished, then reappeared in the blink of an eye. An open bottle of bath oil dangled from Sora's fingers as he grinned. "Super human speed has its advantages."

Riku snatched it from him and slicked up his fingers thoroughly, kissing the other boy as deeply as he could. Sora pushed back on the intrusion, a throaty growl making his chest rumble.

"Faster. I won't break." Chestnut hair framed his face in soft spikes as he watched Riku.

Hoping theory was close to practice, Riku slipped the second finger in, curling and spreading them. Sora's eyes slid closed, lips parted as he let the human open him.

After only a few minutes, Sora began to squirm and pulled away. "I'm ready." He tipped Riku's hand, spilling oil in his lap. His other hand spread it generously, sending another lance of need through Riku.

"You're sure?" Every word had to be forced through his throat.

Sora rose to his knees, still holding Riku's erection. "Oh yeah." He lowered himself, slowly sheathing Riku inside him. They both cried out.

Will stretched to a thread, Riku held himself back, trembling with effort. Sweat pooled on his stomach as Sora rode him until he broke, hips snapping off the floor to meet every stroke. Skin slapped skin as they parted and met again, a rising tide of heat over-taking them.

"Touch me." Sora leaned forward, hands on either side of Riku's head. Tension vibrated his thin frame, tightening muscles under Riku's hands. "Please."

Every thrust made Sora grip him tighter. When his hand closed over him, his hips bucked. Blood rushed through Riku's head, pounced in time with his heartbeat. A few short strokes were all it took before Sora was crying out above him, seed leaving a trail down his chest.

He teetered on the edge of control as Sora tightened around him, clamping down as he rode his orgasm. Just as the edge crumbled, the vampire struck, teeth sinking deep into his neck.

Lightning flashed under his skin as his orgasm swept over him, a thousand times what it had ever been before. Riku felt his world shatter and piece back together, sharp and clean as fireworks exploded at the tip of every nerve. Every touch sent lances of ecstasy through him, the gentle touch of Sora's lips at his neck dragging orgasm after orgasm out, until he could feel his senses buckling under the weight of it all.

After Sora pulled away, Riku lay splayed on the floor, aftershocks dancing up and down his body. Clear, human blue eyes stared down at him, flushed from sex and blood.

"You okay?" A hand cupped Riku's cheek. It felt better than it had any right to, every crease standing in sharp relief against his skin. Thought came slowly, oozing. His brain felt overloaded from processing so much pure sensation. Every bit of skin was so sensitive, he felt like he'd gone swimming in crème de menthe.

"Wow." The feeling was fading, but not so quickly he thought he could move.

Sora laughed, still hot as blood around him. "That's 'yes'?"

"Un." Even blinking set nerves racing.

"Want to catch a nap?"

Experimentally, Riku lifted a hand and let it drop. The feeling sizzled through him. "Give me a minute."

Smiling lips touched his as Sora kissed him. "Take all the time you need."  


* * *

Early evening sunlight battled with the overhead lamp for dominance in Riku's junk-strewn living room. Sora's battle to finish the costume before the movie had won, but at the price of a disaster the cleaning lady was going to cry over. Pieces of discarded material and bits of thread were everywhere, along with a collection of sewing supplies Riku had complained Sora couldn't possible need. They had somehow ended up on the floor regardless.

Sora watched Riku turn in front of the full-length mirror he'd dragged out of his parent's bedroom.

The human's expression hovered half-way between horror and bemusement. "I'm not wearing this in public." He swept aside the back of the sleeveless duster and twisted to inspect his backside in the mirror. "This is way too tight-- you can tell I'm not wearing underwear!"

Perched on the back of the couch, Sora admired his handiwork. "But you're sexy, Ri-ku." The duster had taken the longest, having to be modified from an old trench coat and then battered until it looked older than him. Between that, jeans so soft and tight they fit like spandex and the dog collar he'd found in Selphie's "dress-up" supplies, Riku looked like sex in socks.

"Stating the obvious isn't going to make me wear it, So-ra."

He laughed. "Come on, it's not that big a deal. Put on your steel-toed boots and we'll finish the accessories."

"Accessories?" The trailing coat flared dramatically as Riku turned to stare at him. His rabies tags jingled. "What accessories?"

"Jewelry. Nails. Hair." A slow grin stole over Sora's face. "Make-up."

"Oh no. Hell no. I am not wearing make-up." Outside, streetlamps flickered on as the sun finished setting. "Bad enough I look like some kind of gothic gigolo. No make-up."

"It's stage make-up." Sora lifted the bag, sniggering when Riku flinched away from it. "Wyndel's old. I need to draw some lines on your face."

"And the hair?"

"Colored hairspray. It'll be brown tonight."

Victory came when Riku's bare shoulders dropped. "Alright, but anything too girlie and I'm staying home."

Excitement tightened Sora's stomach. "Deal. Now put on the boots and get over here."

Once his lover stopped fighting, it was the work of minutes to transform him into a craggy ex-fighter. The fake hoop earring, armbands and fake knives combined with black nail polish and his newly silver-streaked brown hair combined to make him look dangerous. Deepened lines on his face and a scar finished it off.

Satisfied, Sora sat back to observe his masterpiece. "Get me a camera. I've got to get a picture of this."

Green eyes rolled. "Selphie's bound to have one. Am I done yet?"

"Yeah." Make-up smeared under his fingernails. Sora picked at it. "Just let me get my own on and we can go."

Riku picked at his hair, making a face. "It feels so stiff," he whined, fingers wandering over the low ponytail. "Can't I at least wear looser jeans?"

It didn't take a complete inspection of Riku from ankles to hips and back again for Sora to make his decision, but he inspected anyways. "Definitely not."

"Damn it."

Sora rolled his eyes and started the involved process of gelling down his spikes. It took a small fortune of styling products on good days, and Sora had a feeling it wasn't going to be a good day.

He was right. The small fortune turned into a big one before his hair would lie flat, and even then it had a disturbing tendency to spring back up if provoked. He slipped an emergency tube of gel in his pocket, just in case.

Three stops to fix Sora's hair later, the vampire and human lounged on the outside steps of the theater, waiting for their friends. Sora slid under Riku's arm, using him as a prop and wind-protector for his stubborn locks. People in regular clothing stared as they went inside, and Sora had been hugged unexpectedly by a girl in an anime shirt. One person had even commented that Riku's bite marks were the only unrealistic thing about the costume.

Concrete sidewalk dug into Sora's butt through his thin slacks, every tiny rock another jab into soft flesh. "Aren't Selphie and Tidus supposed to be here already?" He leaned his cheek into Riku's shoulder, still warm and lethargic from someone he'd sipped from on the way. Riku smelled like hairspray and leather. Sora reveled in it.

"She's always late. You should be used to it."

"I am not always late!"

Both boys jumped as Selphie cackled, bracelets jangling as she clapped. Fright almost made Sora's hair defy the gel he'd layered on it. Her perfume swamped him, a heavy citrus scent that blocked out even the reek of car exhaust. He fought the urge to stop breathing. Even Riku wrinkled his nose.

Tidus stood behind her, arms crossed. "Geez, Sora, have you even heard of a hairbrush?"

"Shut up, Tidus." Sora tipped his head back against Riku's shoulder to glare at the other boy. He was dressed as a human, in a loose pair of indigo male-wear harem pants and a silver-painted collar. In difference to the theater's no-shoes no-shirt policy, he'd put on slippers and a poet's shirt that was transparent enough it did more harm than good. "What are you wearing, Selphie?"

The girl fluffed her skirt, odd yellow contacts making her eyes gleam like a cat's. Riku shivered under Sora as she stared at them. "A costume. Remember? Were-Selphie? Did you hit your head on the headboard?"

"The perfume. It reeks." Riku unfolded himself from the concrete. His jeans rubbed softly with very movement. "Go wash some off. Didn't you tell her how bad it smells, Blondie?"

Loose shirt billowing as cars drove by, Tidus shrugged. "I tried."

"I smell bee-you-tee-full!" Selphie twirled, almost tripping in her patent leather shoes. She'd added spatters of dark, rusty red to the outfit, especially around the mouth that looked eerily like real blood under the halogen street lamps. "Let's go in! Please?"

"We're not going to win this, are we?" Sora asked, using Tidus as a handhold to pull himself to his feet.

"Nopers!" Her heels snapped on the concrete as she fidgeted, silver flashing from the soles. "There's only an hour to show time, and I want a good seat!"

"Then you should have been on time." Tidus pulled at his collar. "She kept me waiting a half-hour, and won't even tell me why."

Selphie's painted muzzle went in the air, smile taking on a brittle edge. "It's a girl thing."

The silence was absolute. The lone girl watched them pointedly, almost daring anyone to crack a joke.

Groping for something to say, Sora looked around. "Well... Um..." His eyes fixed on her red-stained mouth. "What's that on your face? It's too orange for fake blood."

"Ketchup." She smiled, showing off a set of werewolf teeth almost as impressive as Sora's vampire set. "Fake blood tastes nasty. This was much nicer." Tap shoes clicking, she slipped between him and Riku like an unwanted baby sister. Sora sighed.

"Hurry up you two." Riku tugged at Selphie's hand. "You're the fans here."

"Yeah, we're just the escort," Tidus chimed in, shoving the three of them from behind.

The vampire and were-girl grinned at each other, stamped their feet and chorused, "Yes sir Wyndel sir!"

Tidus doubled over laughing at Riku's pained expression while the theater doors swung shut behind them.   


* * *

Only love and the death grip Sora had on his waist kept Riku from running away the second the closing credits started to roll.

"I can't believe they -- Gray has brown eyes! Brown!" Selphie walked backwards out of the theater, hands emphasizing her points. The leash she'd snapped on Tidus's collar snapped like a whip as she gestured wildly. Popcorn had landed on her hair, and she'd had enough gummy bears to feed an army. Sometime during the movie, one of her fake ears had twisted to the side, giving her a quizzical air. "And when did Triblee become such a wimp?"

"I think when she hit her head-- that would do it. She'll be back to normal by movie three, watch." Sora was a little bundle of energy under Riku's arm as he and Selphie dissected the details of the film. "Brook Shelton was the perfect choice for her. I can't imagine anyone else--"

Riku exchanged a look of shared agony with Tidus as the two die-hard fans babbled using words he could only vaguely pin-point as somehow being related to the movie.

"Oh God, Kevin Fellips as Wyndel!" Selphie swooned, almost hitting her head on Tidus's shoulder. The blonde boy's eyes darted back and forth in search of escape. "I thought I'd die in the shower scene!"

He couldn't let it pass without comment. Especially after the way Sora had been drooling at the scene in question. "Selphie, one: yuck. He's sixty-something. Two: your ear is falling off." As his boyfriend poked his ribs, Riku sighed. "Third, Valinteen was hotter. Happy Sora?"

"Yes." The vampire resumed snuggling. "Much."

Tidus's leash dangled as Selphie groped her ears to keep them up. "I'll have you know Wyndel's a sex god. I'll be right back!" She dashed for the crowded ladies room. "Meet you outside!"

For his part, Tidus waited until she was safely behind the bathroom door and out of sight before reeling in his leash and taking off for the door. The newly-freed human slave waved as he vanished down the sidewalk. "Tell her I went home!"

"Coward!" Riku yelled after him, still locked to Sora's side.

"That was mean." Petite fangs showed as Sora tried to hide his grin. "You should have waited until it fell."

"No, _that_ would have been mean." He blinked as they stepped outside, the sudden change from well-lit theater to dim streets blinding him for a moment. Movie-goers flowed around them, parting to the left and right as they headed to their cars. The street was empty, even for midnight, and got emptier as people vanished into the parking lot. "What do you want to do?"

Sora leaned against the wall, pulling Riku with him. His poet's shirt looked pink under the red neon of the movie lights. "Coffee? Pizza?" A gelled spike bounced from the movement, threatening to break away from the rest of his hair. "We should ask Selphie. She might be ready to call it a night."

"Or to go out and build sand castles." A warm breeze blew over Riku's face. He savored it after the chill of inside. The sound of the door closing caught his attention, but it was only a late-leaver, huddled in his jean jacket like it was winter. He shoved past them with his elbows, brown eyes flat and harsh under a baseball cap.

Riku saw the knife before Sora did. "Look out!" He rammed into Sora's shoulder, shoving him out of the way. Flesh slapped concrete as Sora stumbled and fell. The knife arced through where he'd been standing and beyond to Riku, sliding home under his ribs and grinding deep. Pain lanced upwards, whiting out the world for the space of a heartbeat. Agony burned all the way up to his throat in an acidic rush.

The attacker yanked the knife out, sending Riku to his knees. It grated on his ribs, burning worse going out than it had going in. Someone grunted and slammed the ground to his left, shoes scuffling against concrete.

Vision returned in a flood of neon lights. Warmth seeped from his side, damp and reeking of copper. Eyes solid blue, Sora fought for the gun that had appeared in the man's hands. His right arm hung limp, blood streaming down from a palm-sized gash in his shoulder. People screamed all around them, running into the shadows for safety.

"Fucking demon!" The man twisted, throwing Sora to the ground.

Riku tried to stand, managing to stumble between Sora and the man, fighting to stay upright. Everything spun, pain making him dizzy. Crimson lights glowed off the barrel of the gun. Two shots tore through the air, robbing the night of sound. Blood blossomed on the attacker's jacket as he folded to the pavement.

Selphie stood on the top steps of the theater, legs spread, gun leveled in a professional two-handed grip. Riku tried to smile at her. _She fixed her ears._

The world spun and rushed upwards, going black. Then everything went away.  


* * *

Sora's world stopped when the guns went off. "Riku!" The two humans fells, blood spreading over the ground in coppery puddles. Riku's green eyes were wide, staring upwards blindly. Terror screamed in every nerve Sora had as he scrambled over the bounty hunter, fumbling for Riku's pulse.

Tap shoes clattered as Selphie stepped around the pooling blood, gun still trained on the dead hunter. Sirens wailed in the distance, getting closer with every second. "He's dead, Sora. We have to go."

Cooling flesh gave under his fingers, dead as clay. His wounded shoulder burned, but it was a distant thing next to the white film starting to smear over Riku's eyes. The only thing that mattered was finding a pulse. "He's not! He can't be!" The cold ball in his gut prickled and tightened. _He'd want it... He didn't want to go!_

A hand on his shoulder stopped him from picking up the body. Her nails were long and red, the glue already chipping loose. "He is, and if we want to get away we have to go now."

"He's not gone! I can--"

"Later." Nails dug in as she gripped his jaw, wrenching his eyes away from the empty shell that used to be his lover. For the first time, Sora noticed she was crying. Real tears, fat and hot that smeared her mascara and dripped off her chin. "If you do it now, we're all dead."

He'd never seen Selphie cry real tears.

Their hands twisted together as she led him away from the carnage. The gun vanished under her shirt, tucked away so neatly even Sora's supernatural vision couldn't spot it. They ducked down an alley, then up a fire escape. Every motion was professional, planned. There was nothing of the flighty, hopeless romantic he called a friend in her. She'd become a stranger in the time it took two people to die.

"Who are you?"

"Selphie Templar, fifth degree Ranger for section Zero-Three-Seven." The fire escape ended at the top level of windows. It didn't stop her. Using a mix of windowsills and artfully jutting bricks, she kept climbing up to the roof, legs flashing pale against the shadows.

Riku's dead eyes still fresh in his mind, Sora followed. If she'd wanted him dead or captured, she'd had three years to do it. "How do you know about me? I've never even heard of a Ranger." He accepted her help up, limp arm completely useless.

"You don't think bounty hunters kill themselves, do you?" The roofs were close together in that part of town. For Sora it was an easy jump, even with his balance off from an injury, but it would be difficult for a human. Selphie jumped it anyways, only stumbling a little on landing. She moved like she could see as well in the dark as he could. "We take care of things. Lycanthropes, Nosferatu, Sidhe, Homo Aquatis Sapiens. Someone has to-- you all suck at doing it yourselves."

"Take care of-- Riku's dead!" Glass from someone's abandoned bottle crunched under his feet. She twisted to look at him, one foot on a ladder leading even higher upwards. They were high enough above the city lights that the stars were visible, powdered sugar sprinkled over the night sky. "Our friend died and you call that taking care of things?"

Selphie dropped off the ladder, wedged between him and it with a twelve story drop on the other side. Mascara smeared even more as she rubbed her eyes. "No, I don't." A black streak trailed down her cheek where her hand dragged. "And I'm sorry. Sorry for not doing my job better, sorry for lying, sorry for screwing up. I'm sorry!" She ripped off her fake ears. "I didn't think he'd go after you. Not when I just took out the other two a few hours ago."

She was shaking. Against the star-lit background of the sky, he could see it clearly. Her perfume drifted around her in waves, covering even the acrid reek of gunpowder and blood. _She's still Selphie,_ he realized. The same girl he'd known for three years, who'd tackled him on the first day of school and told him that he screamed 'gay' and she wanted to be his friend. His right arm throbbed at the movement, but he carefully wrapped his good one around her shoulders in a hug. "Leia, she's been missing..."

She nodded, hiccupping. "I tried to save her. But I was too late."

_I was supposed to protect her..._ Guilt settled on his shoulders, heavier than the world. "You... You tried. I know you tried your best."

"I never killed anyone before today." Her voice was a bare whisper over the sirens behind them. Her arms wrapped around his waist, like she had to hold onto him to keep herself together. "You're my first assignment. I was supposed to follow you and Riku to Trellis... find out on accident... I'm sorry."

"I thought you said Section Zero-Three-Seven."

He thought she smiled. "You're Section Zero-Three-Seven."

"Oh." It was nearing one A.M. "What do we do now?"

She took a breath and released it. Cool professionalism dropped around her like a comfortable dress. "Now we find some normal clothes and go get Riku before dawn. We don't want them to have time for more than taking out the bullet. After that..." She shrugged.

"After that, you're going to Trellis." Her jaw dropped in shock as he let her go. "Come on. We've got a morgue to ransack."  


* * *

Freezing silence radiated from everything, feeling of chemicals and harsh metal and nothing alive at all. Somewhere in the building, a cart of sort clattered over tile, a distinctive rattle that never came from anywhere else. Cold ate him, numbing everything into immobility. He couldn't open his eyes, could barely feel the ghosts of hands on him. A vague feeling of something not right echoed somewhere in his head, but thought was frozen with the rest of him.

Sensation blossomed. It started in his stomach, warm and thick like honeyed sunlight. From there, feeling spread to his mouth where flavor returned in a rush of salty-sweet smoothness. His mouth ached, jaw tender and teeth feeling stretched like putty. He welcomed it, even pain better than the horrible numbness. Memory returned in flashes and jagged bits as his head cleared.

_Laughing at a soccer game._

_Kissing his first girl and getting ice cream in his hair for it._

_Chestnut hair and eyes the same color as the western horizon at dawn._

_Love._

_A girl in a miniskirt and furry pantyhose._

_Guns._

_Dying._

_Nothingness._

Riku opened his eyes.

His fingers curled around the wrist being held to his mouth. He didn't know when he'd grabbed it, still couldn't feel his hand. It seemed vitally important that it not be taken away. So he held on, life flooding back through him with every swallow. Sharp, sweet liquid flowed much too slowly down his throat. He ground his aching teeth into the wrist, widening the gash in it. He tasted rubber from the gloves just beside his mouth, but kept drinking down the offering. It was like coffee before dawn.

The wrist pulled away. Riku fought to hold it, to keep the strange liquid flowing. It slipped through hands that didn't have enough feeling to hold it. Without the wrist to hold, his arms dropped to the bare metal table under him. Tingling, electric warmth still spread through him, sluggish now that the source was gone. Florescent lights beat over head, blinding him until he closed his eyes.

"Riku? Come on, you have to get up." An arm slid under his shoulder, then jerked him upright. "Wake up!" The table rattled, the voice lowering to a pleading whisper. "Please let it have worked. Please."

The voice was familiar, but it took him a moment to recognize the emotion for what it was. Despair. "Sora?" His head felt thick and gritty, like he'd over-slept by entire days. When he opened his eyes again, the lights didn't hurt as much, but they were still far brighter than he was comfortable with. Sora blocked most of them. His hair still pretended to be pasted down with gel, but he'd switched to normal clothes. His arm was tied against his chest in a make-shift sling, bandages bulky under his dark rock band shirt. "What happened?"

Sora's relief smelled like fresh snow. "It worked." And then they were kissing, long slow sweeps of tongues and lips and _ohGod_ teeth that were desperate in their gentleness. It took away the last of the cold, brought everything back to the intense clarity of things he never expected to feel again. His fingers tangled in Sora's hair, spikes stiff and stubborn under his fingers. The vampire's shirt was rough against his chest, every thread important because he could _feel it_.

They broke apart, silence broken only by the sound of their lips parting. "You taste like pixy sticks."

"That'd be Selphie." Sora grinned, relief still written in his eyes. "Get dressed. We have to go."

The freezing air was strangely distant as he swung Riku legs off the table. He was naked, on a metal table in a cold room lined with giant filing cabinets. A morgue. _There's an orange tag on my toe,_ he realized, staring at it. His name had been written on it in neat print, along with an ID code. "I was dead."

"We'll explain later. Just hurry." Sora kept glancing at his watch, hands covered by surgical gloves.

Every muscle he owned contracted with the cold, aching and stiff from rigor mortis. He dressed as fast as her could from the bag Sora offered. They were his own clothes from a pile he'd left on his dresser. No one had found time to clean him up, but there was a cap that covered the dried blood in his painted-brown hair well enough to pass.

No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find the bullet hole. He didn't find any wounds at all, in fact. Just two scars. Swallowing hard and almost biting a hole in his lip with unexpectedly sharp teeth, Riku picked up the empty bag and followed Sora out the back.

The alley behind the morgue was in shadows, but the sun was rising somewhere beyond it. He could feel it, crawling up into the sky. His skin prickled in warning. Some deeply buried instinct knew without doubt that he wouldn't last an hour in direct sunlight. An empty burger wrapper crinkled under his foot as they headed for the alley's mouth, where a battered gray sedan waited.

The moment he stepped out of the shadows, pain struck. _Sora was right._ It _was_ like a bad sunburn, sizzling down to his bones. Even the pale light of dawn was like pins in his eyes, blinding. The cap helped, keeping his eyes partly protected as long as he kept his head down.

Sora stayed at his side as he stumbled along, stuffing his rubber gloves in his pockets. "Just get in the car. We've got a blanket to cover you. It'll help." Vision blurring, Riku followed the directions of his hands, the tight burn of sunlight scattering his thoughts. Relief came as he fell into the backseat and Sora tossed a blanket over him.

The car door closed. "You had your ID in your wallet, so you're officially dead," Sora said from somewhere around his feet. "As soon as Selphie resets the video cameras, we'll head back to your apartment and grab your stuff. No one will think to look for signs that you ran." A comforting hand landed in the vicinity of his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Why aren't I still on that slab?" Sora's hand tensed, gripping the comforter in a fist. "And when did Selphie start carrying a gun?"

"I changed you." Weight settled on his hip as Sora leaned into him. "If you're fast and the head's not damaged, it's possible." Cloth rustled as Sora curled around him, protecting him. "We never talked about it, not really, but I couldn't..." He took a breath, lungs expanding against Riku's back. "I couldn't leave you dead. I'm too selfish for that."

"I'm a vampire?"

"Yeah."

He knew what Sora wasn't saying. He was going to exist for a long time, long enough that everything he knew would vanish. People would be born, grow old and die around him. Like Sora, he'd always be on the move, too young-looking to settle down for long. Maybe there'd be more of the people who'd already killed him once.

He'd get to spend eternity with Sora. It was a bargain. "I love you." Sunlight scalded his hand as it crept out to hold Sora's. Pain didn't matter next to the way their hands fit together. Nonetheless, it was nice when Sora covered their hands up with a fold of cloth. "I told you I didn't want to leave for anything. That means death too." He squeezed Sora's hand. "I love you, fangs for brains."

"I love you too."

The car door opened and slammed closed. Eye-watering citrus perfume filled the interior instantly. "All cadavers covered?" Selphie chirruped. The car rumbled to life around them.

_Selphie's driving?!_ Eternity wasn't as certain as it had a moment before.

"Covered, Ranger-lady." A chill thumb stroked the back of his hand.

"Alright!" Asphalt rolled under the cars wheels, rattling up through the seat and directly to Riku's ear. "I had HQ call us in a car. Grab your stuff, quick drive to a port and a cruise up to New Zealand... We can drop by to see Riku's parents somewhere in there too. By the time we get back, the new identities should be whipped up. We'll be set for school in no time!" Her voice was cheerful as she chattered about breaking dozens of local, national and international laws all in a single leap.

Under the blanket with his lover draped over him, Riku felt the beginning of a family solidify around him. Still, one thing bothered him. "Sora?"

"Yeah?"

"You never told me why Selphie has a gun."

Sora's grin could be felt in the way his body shifted, in a thousand different ways Riku was amazed he'd never noticed before. "That's a really, really long story."

_I love him._ Warmth bubbled up inside him. "That's okay. We've got all the time in the world."  


~*~_Epilogue_~*~

Selphie leaned over the safety railing of the cruise ship, watching dolphins race along side the ocean liner. A merperson jumped with them occasionally, noticeable as a flash of hair and jewel-toned scales among the blue of the bottlenoses. Her hands toyed with a single half-sheet of paper, folding and unfolding it. Humid air rising off the water made it almost too warm for her tank top and cut-off shorts, but the breeze coming from the north promised cooler temperatures in the night. The sun was half-done setting, dyeing ribbons of ocean red and gold, shining through the crests of the waves like aqua-colored glass.

"You don't like dolphins?" A warm body settled next to hers against the rail. Riku grinned behind the dark sunglasses that shaded his sensitive eyes. Sora swore that he wouldn't need them in a week, but until then even a little sunlight gave him a huge headache. "What's wrong?"

Selphie dragged a finger along the rail. "Just thinking, I guess." She licked her lips, tasting salt. The sunlight must have been painful for him, but Riku didn't show it. "I didn't mean to get you killed."

He ran his fingers through his hair, silver strands a weird red color against the sunset. "It wasn't your fault."

"I was supposed to protect--"

"Sora," he interrupted. "Not me. You couldn't have known I'd get in front of the gun."

"It's still my fault."  
She folded the paper again and again, crisping and smoothing the fold with a green-painted fingernail. "I'm being re-assigned when we hit land."

"Why?" Riku peered at her over his sunglasses for a brief second, eyes solid aqua from the pain of sun-burn. "You did your best."

"It wasn't good enough." The missive dropped from her fingers, dancing away into the water below. "I don't want to go."

"Then don't." Sora leaned against her other side, spikes bouncing in the wind. "Tell them we won't accept someone else."

Green eyes widened. "I can't do that! It's orders!"

"What are they going to do, tell us no?" Riku grinned at her and draped a tan arm over her shoulders in a brotherly squeeze. His fangs peeked out from the grin, not fully extended but almost. "You're coming with us, kiddo."

Sora's paler arm covered Riku's on her shoulder. "Whether they like it or not."

"Thank you." Her arms snaked around their waists for a brief hug.

Riku ruffled her hair. "You didn't think we'd leave a were-Selphie to fend for herself, did you?"

She grinned at them. "Arooooo."

**Author's Note:**

> Older fic, has a lot of issues I know. But it's my first "long" fic, so I felt it deserved saving.


End file.
